by Johannes Vrana, Ripi Singh, and ChatGPT
Background
In the summer of 2021, Singh and Garg collaborated with an artificial intelligence (AI) agent (GPT-3) to research human factors in decision-making in the context of NDE 4.0. They created an interface script to engage with AI. The outcome was published in the Journal of Non-destructive Evaluation in August 20211. The authors shared their experience in a previous NDE Outlook column2. They articulated their collaboration as an eye-opening and rewarding experience for human partners. The article provided convincing evidence of a powerful human-machine coworking at linguistic and cognitive levels—one that is closer than we think, and more powerful than we conceive.
On 30 November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a spin-off of GPT-3 that is geared toward answering questions via back-and-forth dialogue. This conversational format allows ChatGPT3 to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests. No need for an interface script. It is similar to a model called Sparrow, which DeepMind revealed in September4. Both these models were trained using feedback from human users around the world.
ChatGPT has gone viral, beating all previous records of user engagement and social media domination. It gained a million registered users in the first week, almost 15× faster than the record holder Instagram.
Up Until Now
We wanted to find out how much does ChatGPT know about NDE 4.0 and if it learns from our interactions.
OUR FIRST QUESTION: WHAT IS NDE 4.0?
ChatGPT’s Response:
It is not clear what you are referring to with the term “NDE 4.0.” It is possible that you are referring to a specific version or iteration of a product or service that uses the abbreviation “NDE,” but without more context it is difficult to provide a specific answer. If you have more information or context about what you are asking, please let me know and I’ll do my best to help.
We accept that honesty. So, we asked a follow-up question to see if expanding the abbreviation helped.
OUR SECOND QUESTION: WHAT IS NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION 4.0?
ChatGPT’s Response:
Non-destructive Evaluation (NDE) 4.0 is a term that refers to the application of advanced technologies and digitalization to the field of nondestructive testing and evaluation. Nondestructive testing (NDT) is the process of evaluating the properties of a material, component, or system without causing damage to it. NDT methods include techniques such as ultrasonic testing, radiographic testing, and magnetic particle testing, among others. NDE 4.0 involves the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) into NDT processes to improve efficiency, accuracy, and automation. It is also associated with the concept of Industry 4.0, which refers to the integration of advanced technologies into manufacturing and other industrial sectors to improve productivity and competitiveness.
This sounds very good—correct and almost complete. So, we continued the chat. Our objective was to quickly learn the language trends for our next book. We were exploring ChatGPT’s capability to help us with research and content creation. We asked a series of questions around NDE, sensing, perception, cognition, cyber-physical, physical-digital, digitalization, and so on, and the responses kept getting better in breadth and depth. Then we asked a question to help us with our upcoming business development meeting.
OUR 14TH QUESTION: I AM LOOKING FOR TERMS DESCRIBING THE CONFLUENCE OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES WITH NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION?
ChatGPT’s Response:
There are several terms that can be used to describe the integration of emerging technologies with Non-destructive Evaluation (NDE). Here are a few examples:
Digital NDE: This term refers to the use of digital technologies such as sensors, computers, and communication networks in NDE to improve efficiency, accuracy, and automation. Digital NDE can involve the use of advanced data analysis techniques such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve the interpretation of NDE data.
NDE 4.0: This term refers to the application of advanced technologies and digitalization to the field of NDE. NDE 4.0 involves the integration of technologies such as AI, machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) into NDE processes to improve efficiency, accuracy, and automation. It is also associated with the concept of Industry 4.0, which refers to the integration of advanced technologies into manufacturing and other industrial sectors to improve productivity and competitiveness.
Smart NDE: This term refers to the use of advanced technologies such as sensors, AI, and machine learning to enable NDE systems to gather and analyze data in real-time, allowing them to make decisions and respond to their environment without human intervention. Smart NDE systems can be used to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and automation of NDE processes.
Cognitive NDE: This term refers to the use of AI and machine learning techniques to enable NDE systems to adapt and learn from their environment. Cognitive NDE involves the integration of AI and machine learning algorithms into NDE systems to enable them to process and analyze data in real-time, allowing them to make decisions and respond to their environment without human intervention. Cognitive NDE systems are designed to improve the performance and capabilities of NDE systems.
And there it is: ChatGPT now used the term NDE 4.0 in its response. Wow, it is a fast learner. We were intrigued and asked the original question again, only to be pleasantly impressed.
OUR FIRST QUESTION AGAIN: WHAT IS NDE 4.0?
ChatGPT’s Response:
NDE 4.0 refers to the application of advanced technologies and digitalization to the field of nondestructive evaluation (NDE). NDE 4.0 involves the integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) into NDE processes to improve efficiency, accuracy, and automation. It is also associated with the concept of Industry 4.0, which refers to the integration of advanced technologies into manufacturing and other industrial sectors to improve productivity and competitiveness.
NDE 4.0 systems may involve the use of sensors, computers, and communication networks to enable the real-time monitoring and control of physical systems. They may also involve the use of advanced data analysis techniques such as AI and machine learning to improve the interpretation of NDE data. NDE 4.0 systems are designed to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and automation of NDE processes, and can be used in a variety of applications such as manufacturing, transportation, and energy.
In summary, we generated enough valuable content to convince ourselves that we have a third intellectual partner in creating lectures, proposals, papers, books, and even this short column. This one is far simpler to work with than the original study in 2021.
Outlook
ChatGPT can certainly be used for learning, understanding things and concepts, and preparing writeups, in a manner that is much faster than a Google search. Of course, it needs some validation and context. You cannot blindly trust the initial response or give up. Just keep chatting so it understands you better and the context of the conversation. That is powerful. Some are calling it a threat to Google search. However, as of now, it does not crawl the web. It uses a data snapshot through 2021. With Microsoft poised to acquire and make it a part of Bing search as well as the Microsoft Office suite, we are in for a very powerful virtual office assistant—an intelligent one.
GPT-3, which aspires to handle text like a human, works with 175 billion parameters, roughly equivalent to the number of synapses in a hedgehog’s brain. The technical community speculates its successor GPT-4 to work with trillions of parameters, getting closer to human brain with 120 trillion synapses. At some point, GPT will go multimodal—text, audio, and video. Sigh…How close will that be to a human head? Our heads hurt to think.
In conclusion: AI tools with human-like capability are here, easily accessible, and affordable. They will not replace your job, but the person using them will. So, you might as well start using them.
AUTHORS
Johannes Vrana (Vrana GmbH, Germany), Ripi Singh (Inspiring Next, USA), and ChatGPT
REFERENCES
Singh, R., V. Garg, and GPT-3. 2021. “Human Factors in NDE 4.0 Development Decisions.” J Nondestruct Eval 40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-021-00808-3
Singh, R., and V. Garg. 2022. “Can we Collaborate with AI?” Mat Eval 80 (10), pp. 13–14.
Heaven, W.D. 2022. “ChatGPT is OpenAI’s latest fix for GPT-3. It’s slick but still spews nonsense.” MIT Technology Review. 30 November 2022. https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/30/1063878
The Sparrow Team, 2022, “Building Safer Dialogue Agents.” DeepMind. 22 September 2022. https://www.deepmind.com/blog/building-safer-dialogue-agents
blog credit @ https://blog.asnt.org/this-is-chatgpt-how-may-i-help-you/
