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Guideline Usage: The suggested Guidelines set forth have been drafted by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Risk Subcommittee of the ACEC Risk Management Committee with input from the ACEC Technology Committee to serve as information for design professional firms in their evaluation of AI. Neither these Guidelines nor anything set forth herein constitute requirements, mandates, or an establishment of any facet of a design professional’s standard of care. This information is not a statement by ACEC, its Risk Management Committee, this Subcommittee, the Technology Committee, or anyone affiliated with ACEC or any Member Firm regarding any legal, professional, or other standard or requirement in connection with a design professional’s use or consideration of AI. Readers of these Guidelines are free to adopt or otherwise use as inspiration the information set forth below as they see fit (including not at all), as best suits their firms and their businesses. To reiterate, nothing herein is intended by this Subcommittee to constitute, nor shall it be interpreted as constituting, a standard of care when it comes to design professionals’ use of AI or adoption or non-adoption of any of these Guidelines.
What is AI: Generally, Artificial Intelligence is conceived of as the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. It encompasses the sub-fields of Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Generative AI. Machine Learning is a form of artificial intelligence based on algorithms that are trained on data. Deep Learning is a subset of Machine Learning that uses artificial neural networks to mimic the learning process of the human brain. Generative AI generates content in response to a prompt, such as ChatGPT or DALL-E. Machine Learning is focused on analyzing data to find patterns and make accurate predictions whereas GenAI is focused on creating new data that resembles training data. Refer to the Lexicon in the Attachment for more information.
Purpose of Guidelines: Provide information that design professionals may take into account in order to promote responsible, professional, and ethical behavior with respect to the adoption and usage of AI in their businesses, including the design professional firm’s policies, culture, confidentiality requirements, and contracts with clients.
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