Will Artificial Intelligence take our jobs?
Anyone who knows me will understand my interest in technology and how it can help us, that is matched equally with my frustration of how technology isn’t helping. All too often when programming lighting I find the console dictating the workflow whilst I’m left to do the mathematical calculations of one type or another, rather than the other way around. Frankly this plays to neither of our strengths.
A big frustration for me has been the fact the console has no comprehension of what I’m trying to do, and therefore is extremely limited in its ability to help me. For some time I have been wishing there was a way to overcome this and have even gone so far as filing a patent application (details below) for a virtual assistant to bridge this gap.
For the past years I have been following the rapid proliferation of AI and machine learning with extreme interest and it really feels like this may be nearing a possibility now. Do I think lighting designers and or programmers will be replaced with artificial intelligence? Honestly no, although I do note there is a lighting design program already on the market that is aimed at DJ’s which can apparently perform such tasks. I think the endless creativity of humans will secure our jobs, however these could be made infinitely easier with a little more help from our technology and that’s where I really see machine learning coming in.
As a very basic example, currently building a sequence is extremely laborious:
Fixture 1 @full record...
Fixture 2 @full record…
By this point in the same way predictive text can auto-complete a word or sentence the desk could offer to complete this task:
“Would you like fixture 3@full all the way up to fixture 100?"
With enough historical data, and a variety of external references, any complex task could be easily completed based on a recognisable pattern. This is what I see as the future of lighting control programming aided by AI, but will the industry be brave enough to adopt it? Eventually, it may not have a choice.
Virtual lighting assistant (VLA) agent in an adaptive lighting system
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