Software + Technology
Unlocking AECO Knowledge with GPT: Natural Language Queries for Document Management
By Dr. Jeff Chen, Director of Digital Transformation and George Broadbent, VP of Asset Management, Symetri
A Mountain of Documents Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) stands as one of the most document-intensive industries in the world. From early design sketches to finalized contracts, and comprehensive Operations and Maintenance (O&M) manuals, stakeholders are inundated with reams of paperwork and digital documents. This paperwork, albeit essential, often slows down processes. Imagine an engineer looking for a specific clause in a 200-page contract or an operator trying to understand a certain aspect from a complex O&M manual. Such hands-on searches not only consume time but also Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) has emerged as a game- changer in the field of artificial intelligence. Its foundational architecture has been heralded for its ability to comprehend, generate, and interact with human-like textual finesse. To truly understand GPT's potential, imagine an assistant that has read virtually every book, article, and significant document up to a last training cut-off in 2021 (as in the case of GPT-4). It retains this vast sea of knowledge, ready to offer insights, generate texts, and answer a plethora of questions with a precision that is remarkably close to human intellect. increase the potential for error. The Rise of a Textual Savant One of the standout features of GPT is its “zero-shot” or “few-shot” learning capabilities. For many tasks, GPT does not have to be extensively trained. Give it a set of instructions or a couple of examples,
and it gets to work, generating relevant responses. This ability means it is versatile and can be adapted to numerous scenarios without heavy retraining. While GPT can be likened to a superhuman textual brain, it is crucial to remember its knowledge is not inexhaustible. Information created after 2021 is a blind spot for it. This implies that while GPT can provide a vast general knowledge base and even industry-specific insights up to its last update. However, for real-time, contemporary data or post-2021 developments, a supplementary method becomes essential. In the context of AECO, while GPT could provide general knowledge on industry standards, protocols, and best practices available up to 2021, newer project documents, recently established protocols, or contractual changes past this date would be out of its purview. Thus, there is an inherent need to marry GPT's prowess with another technological solution to ensure continuous knowledge updates and relevance–and
that is where embedding comes to shine. Embeddings and Vector Databases
Embeddings, in the realm of digital technology, work like magic. They take complex, lengthy, and often hard-to-understand texts and convert them into colorful vectors—numerical representations that are compact yet bursting with meaning. Each vector captures the essence, or soul, of its original text. In this fantastical library, vectors are those glowing colors, each hue and shade representing a theme, topic, or sentiment.
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csengineermag.com
October 2023
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