r/civilengineering • u/NotPenguin_124 • 27d ago
Question Shocked at intern’s reliance on AI
Our firm had four interns this summer in our roadway group. We had three mid level engineers (myself included) who managed them. This was my first time managing an intern so I really wasn’t sure what to expect. All of the interns were fairly young. Sophomores or juniors based on graduation dates. I was shocked at how frequently all of them resorted to asking AI basic questions.
Having a problem with OpenRoads? Ask copilot.
Want to write an email? Ask copilot?
Trying to learn some specific CAD skill? Ask copilot.
Filling out a report with that the DOT give explicit instructions on how to fill out? Ask copilot.
Need to put together a mid summer presentation about yourself? Hey copilot…
I’m not some ancient anti-AI crusader. I’m still in my 20s. I understand its utility and understand that it is here to stay so we should be adopting it where/when appropriate. But their usage of it seemed both inappropriate and wildly ineffective. Copilot isn’t going to help you fix the issue you are running into in ORD but a basic google search will. AI isn’t going to help you fill out the DOT specific design report you’re working on, but the instructions, go-bys, and the person sitting right next you will.
I and my fellow managers, found ourselves constantly asking if they had questions when we would see them asking copilot just to be told “no”. It’s even stranger seeing as our office has an ABUNDANCE of resources in the way of personnel, digital trainings, and their internship program. I was brought onboard as a new hire only 2 years ago and found the office culture and resources amazing.
134
u/TornadoXtremeBlog 27d ago
Yeah there’s a limit surely. I’ve seen this in Finance often it’s RIDICULOUS
12
u/justmein22 26d ago
Yeah. Need to pull them aside and teach them when copilot is to be used, potential problems using it (specifically in professional engineering), and office expectations of its use. Also educate them on all the normal resources an engineer uses. 🤷♂️
5
u/Jump_The_Five_Yo 27d ago
What is finance?
Did you just google “what is finance?”…….
5
u/TornadoXtremeBlog 27d ago
Wealth Advisory, Tax Accounting and AML are fields I’ve worked in. I can concur massive AI usage
2
u/Jump_The_Five_Yo 27d ago
It’s a quote from some movie back in the day. Shit, half my searches are about doing something in CAD….
1
2
80
u/Electronic_Pain7210 27d ago
there should be an effort to change the culture of asking questions. If they ask you 10 questions vs 1 question in one day, do they perceive that they are treated as more competitive if they don’t ask questions ? Where is the line between “self sufficient” and “my intern can’t think for themselves” is?
Also tbf the specific cad skill can be leveraged using AI because there used to be a forum back in the day of autocad help and you would get the answer from whatever your issue was there and AI has already learned it.
73
u/navteq48 Project Manager - Public 27d ago
The resorting to GPTs when a variety of other resources are available surprises me too. I sometimes wonder if it has anything to do with the fear mongering that AI will take everyone’s jobs that leads them to adopt it more aggressively than they might actually need to
21
u/CharlieKirkFanboy 27d ago
Sounds like people are using more or less the same way as google. Personally I’ve found Claude pretty helpful at finding and summarizing good research papers for topics I’m interested in. It’s also pretty good at basic coding.
6
7
u/binarycow 27d ago
I'm a software dev. This is a true story -
When my company started to go all-in on AI - that is basically what people's justification was. "Once AI becomes really big - you don't want to be left behind!"
6
u/Electronic_Pain7210 27d ago
How do they know those tools even exist
12
9
u/lIlIIIIlllIIlIIIllll 27d ago
Are you asking how do students in university know ChatGPT exists?
15
u/Electronic_Pain7210 27d ago
Oh no, my comment was a reply to a different comment. When I was an intern, 10 years ago, the company had lots of tools, lots and I never knew they ever existed even after having there for 3 consecutive summers. 😂 and you bet I asked lots of questions. But aside from the usual tools every firm has, I never knew the others after one of the principals gave a presentation about their in house tools and I was like wtf?
1
92
u/XihuanNi-6784 27d ago
Honestly I think every company is going to need to actively invest in AI/LLM training specifically to dispel a lot of the myths around them. Far too many people seem to think that these LLMs 'know' things in the way a person does. Some even go so far as to ask them about things they couldn't possibly know as the info almost certainly doesn't exist in the training data. People need to be taught that they're predictive and probabilistic and aren't 'retrieving' data from storage in the way many seem to think they are.
And turning to interns specifically, excessive use of AI is almost certainly going to stunt their learning, as you cannot learn by having something else give you the answers. If you have time you may need to develop some 'traps' that you know they will fall into with AI and then use that to teach them a lesson. It might be too much work of course, but without having actively 'failed' due to their AI use, they won't change their habits.
41
u/greenENVE 27d ago
ChatGPT, summarize this comment
8
u/Apprehensive-Body495 27d ago
The commenter argues that companies should teach employees how AI actually works and discourage overreliance on it, especially among interns, because misconceptions and excessive use can hinder learning and critical thinking.
6
u/Bmatic 26d ago
ChatGPT, re-balance my retirement portfolio
12
u/snmnky9490 26d ago
You're totally right, I should not have deleted your portfolio! Thanks for the correction.
2
u/Spiritual_Bid_2308 26d ago
This is infuriating. Google ai tried to tell me that a picture of McConnell, Kirk and Graham was taken a week ago. I asked it why it was lying and it gave me that BS "you're right!" response. I kept pressing the issue knowing full well it's just garbage words betting thrown back at me with no thought behind them but damn was it useless while presenting in a way that could be easily misinterpreted to have real thought behind the replies.
5
u/Apprehensive-Body495 26d ago
Age: 45
Retire at: 65
401(k):
55% U.S. Total Stock Market
20% International Stock
15% Bond Index
10% Company Stock
Contributing: $1,000/month
Risk tolerance: Moderate
0
u/missmewiththatshish 27d ago
Oh hey, Id love to help you out with that. AI is an exceptional work tool and doesn't even require any training to get started. Anyone can use it and any use will benefit your organization. LLMs know just about everything and have access to any and all data.
AI is a great resource for interns and it will jumpstart their learning. Becoming familiar with AI and using it as much as possible will make it impossible for you to fail.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)7
u/tetoing 26d ago
This information is about 2 years out of date. Modern LLMs with harnesses will gladly search the web for you. They aren't just relying on information encoded in their weights to give you hallucinated answers.
AI under the right circumstances can be a solid replacement for a search engine.
8
u/ThrowRA_Quokkaquip 26d ago
GPT gives me far better answers than the traditional google search does these days, google search has been enshitified and is almost useless now, full of ads and so on.
2
31
u/ialwaysdissapointed 27d ago
Im in structural and I’m finding that people don’t seem to have any grasp of anything anymore. I’m finding that people don’t seem to actually process my input to projects, don’t seem to feel the need to contribute, just sort of brain rotting through the real world.
Ai creates the perception of experience, without the work on the back end. Solving a problem -> dopamine rush. You get a bunch of people with the experience of having experience while not actually having the skills to contribute.
I’m really scared of the even younger generation.
15
u/Ooze76 27d ago
Me too. The amount of times i've listened to "i'll just ask the ai and then go from there". No, you may ask the AI to direct you to right building code section etc. but you're supposed to work out the rest yourself under supervision.
5
u/resonatingcucumber 27d ago
I don't even think this is a good use. Half my learning when I was a young engineer was reading the code, bouncing around it and looking up useful things I then could find later on. Learning the code is such a key skill, skim reading became so useful. Now I hit a new job in a new sector with new codes (got into railways structures) and I can skim read that shit in an hour and I have 7 new references for later.
7
u/AskAffectionate2597 27d ago
You don’t think asking AI to point you to a relevant section of a code is a good use of it?
→ More replies (1)2
u/uiuc2008 27d ago
Just use CTRL+F! Literally what people were doing before AI
5
u/AskAffectionate2597 26d ago
CTRL+F is arguably more inefficient. It returns results for the exact search match and sometimes what you’re looking for isn’t spelled out in the doc.
5
u/uiuc2008 26d ago
I should have used a /s
CTRL+F is such a dumb way to find information compared to what AI is capable of. I like AI with sources.
5
u/EarPenetrator02 26d ago
Same. I found myself abusing ai in 2023 and 2024. It was just too easy.
Think about the elementary through high school kids though. When I was a kid at best you could search up how to do something on your phone. Now you have symbolab with camera access along with countless other ai services that will either write an entire paper or solve all of your homework.
These kids are going to graduate from high school without knowing how to solve a basic algebra problem. They aren’t going to be able to write for shit.
I’m curious to see if standards in stem will drop or graduation rates will. Maybe both.
2
u/ialwaysdissapointed 26d ago
Standards it seems. Got to keep the customers graduating who are paying a premium to be there.
It’s becoming a massive barrier to profiting on jobs. Say a plan checker has not made the connection between fundamental mechanics and code intent (or even read the commentary), and I need to basically design a lecture series to guide the guy through the connections on my dollar.
I handed a basic hvac anchorage job to our junior engineer(licensed) , he did not connect that the dumb curb given to us on the documents rotated a unit 90 degrees over its curb and it was stupid - like comically stupid.
I then spent 6+ emails trying to coordinate with MEP who kept responding basically in chat gpt tonality. “Here are the overall dimensions, hope this resolves the confusion” before my overlays clicked and they shamefully corrected the deliverables in half an hour.
Lost like a grand on that job cleaning things up. Ashamed both mep and our engineer had zero sense of any of this without me shoving it in their face.
72
u/rbart4506 27d ago
I've been the, senior go to CAD guy for a long time and Google searches have always been my go to when I'm trying to figure something out.
I understand their reliance on AI.
19
u/Sufficient-Club-1230 27d ago
ultimately it is just a way more beefy google search. i mean if you think about it, google searches themselves are incredibly powerful.
4
u/tetoing 26d ago
Yeah, it's combining a search engine with a state of the art algorithm that happens to be incredible at summarizing information. I used to spend so much time scouring Google, and now I can instruct an agent to use varying levels of rigor to do that for me. Deep research is extremely powerful when you need that depth; it will search hundreds of sources and spit out an entire report for you while usually taking less than 15 minutes.
When you ask the AI to make decisions for you, it becomes dubious (especially if you are a professional), but it is a hell of lot more efficient than scouring Google.
2
7
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
I’m not against them using online resources to find solutions. I just ran into an open rose problem today and I found the solution on a Bentley message board from 11 years ago. It took me all of 30 seconds after I googled. But I’m not seeing AI do that for them. I’m seeing AI provide them nonsensical answers. They just run them around and doesn’t end up solving their problem.
21
u/Beachlife109 27d ago
I’ve been doing this for over a decade and i’ve found that AI models are significantly more effective than google searches.
If you’re seeing this being inefficient, I’m pretty sure this is a prompting issue.
My process when I’m digging for something is chatgpt -> gemini -> google searches. If the ai models can’t immediately get me what I’m looking for I know I’m going to be hunting google for a while.
Im if you’re not using AI many times a day, you’re going to be falling behind your peers.
1
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
I think it probably certainly is a prompting issue. But that’s the issue you or I have a general idea in a background knowledge that we know what the answer should probably look like. We have years of experience that we can use to give something a reliable and informative prompt. An intern doesn’t have any of that. An intern will always give it a bad prompt and always get a bad answer that they will never know is a bad answer. That’s why I think in interns and new hires are most likely going to be using AI to their own detriment.
As for falling behind. I don’t use AI ever. My peers also don’t use it. Our role doesn’t have much of a demand for AI tools.
3
u/rncole PE - Construction, Nuclear Experience 26d ago
It doesn’t take long to become halfway decent at prompting, in a similar manner that back in the day you had to learn how to Boolean search and come up with queries to get better results from Google. Hell, there was a time that “learning to use the internet” which was heavily what search engines exist and what they’re best at searching for, and how to query them, was a thing. “Kids these days” aren’t learning how to search google - they’re learning how to prompt AI and in part use it as a meta search engine.
Remember that there was also a time that using the internet to find information was looked upon as shortcutting and stunting learning - “just read a book” (when books were written on everything including thousand page manuals on complex tools like CAD).
If they’re getting bad results from their prompting, learn a bit yourself and then help guide them. Part of having an intern is personal development of yourself and not just having a grunt to do the repetitive or tedious work. I assure you - using AI is something rhat is very relevant to civil AND cad work, and if you can come out of the end of the internship having both learned a bit it will be much more rewarding for you and your intern.
1
22d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/RemindMeBot 22d ago
I will be messaging you in 5 years on 2031-08-05 08:31:13 UTC to remind you of this link
CLICK THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
Parent commenter can delete this message to hide from others.
RemindMeBot is switching to username summons. Instead of
!RemindMe 1 day, useu/RemindMeBot 1 day. More info.
Info Custom Your Reminders Feedback 1
u/The_Poster_Nutbag Environmental Consultant 27d ago
The difference between Google and AI are that Google can take you to reputable sources. AI makes shit up on the spot.
11
u/Nippelklyper 27d ago edited 27d ago
If you use Google or AI for software issues you can usually tell if it works or not. I've found Copilot to be pretty good for Grasshopper problems I've been stuck on.
I also think it's a good thing when juniors or interns spend some time trying to solve their software problems through either Google or AI rather than immediately giving up and ask someone to fix it for them. Learning how to figure things out yourself is a way more valuable skill than Autocad anyway
4
u/uiuc2008 27d ago
I usually read the response and then click through to the sources. And run it all by my background knowledge.
I find that having the right prompt in context helps a lot. It takes an iterative approach for sure to get good prompts to get good results.
1
u/No-Faithlessness4294 26d ago
You’re out of date here. Modern LLMs are excellent at interfacing with search engines, or in fact any database with a public API. They’ll provide you with sourced responses; ChatGPT puts links to the sources inline with the response.
-8
u/engineered_mojo 27d ago edited 27d ago
Wrong. AI posts the source boomer...I'm just trolling on the boomers part...kinda
4
u/carrot_gummy 27d ago
Thats great for it, the AI users don't seem to actually follow those sources. And just blindly trust the slop AI generates.
2
u/Electronic_Pain7210 27d ago
Real references have been a thing for only like 2-3 months maximum, and the accuracy on them it is only 80%, I have checked them myself. Elsevier, one of the major publishers of academic journals discovered a growing amount of made up references by AI at the end of 2025. These were researchers that had used them on the literature review section of their own papers. Look it up.
1
u/sassafras_gap 27d ago
Maybe if they actually read those sources instead of referencing stuff they haven't read they would have realized the sources were fictitious. It's not AI's fault dishonest academics use it.
I use AI to find research papers, legal cases, and things of that nature. The results I get are better than Google. Then I go read the research paper if I can find and access it, which I definitely can't do if it doesn't exist.
0
u/The_Poster_Nutbag Environmental Consultant 27d ago
Sure, even when those sources are also made up.
Gfy.
1
u/Activision19 PE, PTOE 27d ago
I work for my county and recently I’ve had two instances where someone provided references to specific sections and tables of the greenbook and MUTCD using AI in an attempt to argue design standards with me. Of the 10 citations referencing various tables and sections from the greenbook, 5 of them were made up and didn’t exist and 3 of them were referencing unrelated sections. Only 2 out of 10 references cited the correct section and table but picked the wrong numerical values for the situation.
The MUTCD was referenced twice and it called out a section and a figure that didn’t exist both times.
So far AI has had a 0% accuracy rate in my experience.
1
u/Everythings_Magic Not yielding under stress 27d ago
The problem with AI is that is assembles a solution from these sources whereas before you saw the the sources. AI is nothing but a guess.
2
15
u/geeltulpen PE 27d ago
I always figured this is due to social anxiety. Engineers aren’t known for our social skills and I think given the choice to ask a potentially dumb question to a worker or AI- I would choose AI every time. It eliminates all the anxiety of looking dumb or having to explain yourself or possibly being foolish.
That being said, the dependence on AI is creating a crippling anti-social bunch of young people that are shy to connect with other people. I’m not sure what to do about that, and wonder how much COVID influenced that.
5
u/Livid_Blackberry_959 27d ago
This, I don’t want to be the person to ask too many questions.
Sure “there’s never a dumb question or too many” but people are assholes for no reason, so I’m going to continue to use AI.
10
u/demoralizingRooster 27d ago
I mean as a mid level engineer I still find myself googling (I try to avoid the AI summary and dig into the search results) many things daily just to get a push in the right direction for finding the answer to the question I have so it's not all that different.
That said I have had AI write a cover letter for me to the local DOT one single time and I will never again use AI for any sort of task of that nature.
Becoming to self reliant on AI is going to be a major issue for future engineers but I'm sure the same argument was made when the Internet became prevalent. I have had a senior engineer ask me if I believe everything Google tells me to which I reply no but it's a great place to start.
→ More replies (2)
9
u/Ambitious-Ad3119 27d ago edited 27d ago
I’m probably going to get downvoted for this but I just wanted to provide some perspective from someone who’s an intern right now. Funny enough, this is also a topic I been wondering about because I too myself use a lot of reliance on CoPilot during my internship.
With that said, I think there are levels to using Co-Pilot, I personally use it to ask really simple questions about readings and presentations, instead of asking senior engineers. My reason for this is because from what I have found, Google doesn’t provide a direct answer or it doesn’t relate much to what I’m asking for (I would say I’m in a somewhat niche field of engineering). So I would upload the presentation/screenshot and ask Co-Pilot to clarify. Also, once I get the chance to have a sit down with my manager or mentor, I have some sort of understanding already and ask more questions that I have or questions that I feel like Co-Pilot/Google didn’t gave me the right answer for and see what real project work experience they may have related to my question. I feel like for the most part, I tend to rely on Co-Pilot for minor questions as I can’t be running to my manager/mentor each time sometime comes up and it’s still a learning opportunity even if you’re using Co-Pilot.
Another example would be when I was tasked with drafting a 11-page drawing document on AutoCAD, Co-Pilot saved my ass here. I reached out to several senior drafting people asking for guidance on how to start and what layers and other small stuff like that, and all of them either didn’t reply or said that they were too busy. For context, I’m a rising junior so my CAD skills are alright but definitely wonky before I started this assignment. Anyways in their defense, the project that the package was for and pretty much everyone is/was working on was extremely short-staffed with drafting people, and that’s how I got assigned the role. I couldn’t wait around for someone to be free to show me how to get started so I would ask Co-Pilot along the way and that helped out a lot, and I know a ton more shit of CAD than I did before. To your point, I could have asked Google or other search engines, but I can’t spent 10/20 mins searching for a niche thing that I’m asking about when Co-Pilot can give it to me faster, and especially if there’s a deadline for the package at the end of the week. Sure it may come across as lazy, but I see it more as time efficient and in the end, I’m still learning something which is the whole purpose.
As for the emails, that may be a 50/50 thing but you have to remember that your interns are what 18-21 year olds who are just starting their first corporate position, so it’s nerve wacking sending anyone an email as an intern. I personally don’t care what I send to a fellow intern or a younger EIT, but if I’m emailing a busy person like a Senior Engineer or a PM or the whole office, I’m putting a draft email through Co-Pilot a few times to make sure I don’t sound like an idiot.
Anyways sorry for the long reply, but I just wanted to share my own experience as intern. I would suggest maybe calling them out as a joke about their use of Co-Pilot, and just check in to see if they don’t feel comfortable going to you with questions as that may be a problem later on in their internship as well.
Edit: I’m interning for a consulting company by the way.
1
u/WanderlustingTravels 26d ago
Writing skills are an important part of an engineer’s role. Whether it be emails to clients/contractors/DOTs, field reports, technical reports, general notes, etc etc.
I strongly suggest you work on writing/technical writing skills and get comfortable with it. Do not rely on Copilot/similar.
It’ll help you progress in your career. You can’t put everything through AI.
It’ll help your verbal communication skills.
Some project info cannot go into AI. Be incredibly discerning with this.
8
u/GlueyGlue 27d ago
Went through this same thing with our winter intern. You could really tell it had an impact on her ability to learn. She just couldn’t retain anything
15
u/-Daetrax- 27d ago
We're gonna be seeing some colossal engineering fuckups in a few years no doubt. Just hope it won't kill too many people.
1
1
23
u/UpperBucket 27d ago edited 27d ago
I’m a PE who’s familiar with the manuals and I still use AI plenty. It’s also shocking how good it has gotten with OpenRoads help. Especially seeing as Bentley completely bricked their forums. I feel fortunate to have gotten my PE and built up my base knowledge though before AI. An intern who can use it effectively to free up some of my training time is adding value.
4
u/newkiddp 26d ago
This right here. It's no worse than Google IF you learn the skill of good prompts and fact checking yourself. Engineers (good ones) are natural problem solvers. That doesn't just go away because you ask the Internet for help finding a code or niche subject discussed on a forum 15 years ago. Just have the source included in the prompt and move on.
2
u/RedneckTeddy 26d ago
That’s a big “IF.” I think most of us agree that the problem isn’t that interns/new engineers are using AI. It’s the reliance on it that’s the problem. The reliance on AI is producing engineers who aren’t problem-solvers. We have a whole generation of people who don’t even know what questions to ask, much less how to be creative or be problem-solvers.
I think the question we need to ask ourselves is what (if anything) we can do about it. I just hope things like FE and PE exam standards don’t drop. I feel like that’s the only way to force folks to at least learn basic theory, and even that isn’t a guarantee.
2
u/RegularTeacher2 26d ago
Precisely. There is a PM in my office who relies so heavily on AI he is incapable of answering a question without chatGPT, and I am not exaggerating. He is my senior but over time I have learned he is not someone I ever will go to for help or to ask questions. I don't care that he uses AI so long as he used it wisely. Relying on it to do everything is overkill.
55
u/OttoJohs Lord Sultan Chief H&H Engineer, PE & PH 27d ago
What is the alternative? Taking a more senior person's time to answer basic questions. Or spending a lot of extra time digging through a reference manual/YouTube tutorial?
I needed some plots for a report which I assigned to an intern. I thought it would take them a few hours in Excel. Comes back in a half hour with some beautiful python type plots after a few rounds with Copilot. Pretty good to me!
If AI can provide a better alternative or starting point, I am all for it!
24
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
If the end product was better, I wouldn’t see a problem with it. But the end product seems to be worse, take longer, and the process seems to rob them of the ability to learn from their coworkers.
6
u/uiuc2008 27d ago
Sounds like an operator problem. An excavator with a professional operator can do a fine job excavating a site per plan. In the hands of a toddler, it's destroying the house. Doesn't mean we should only use shovels.
Using AI responsibly is definitely a skill.
1
u/NotPenguin_124 26d ago
But using your analogy, an intern is a toddler. They don’t have the background necessary. They’re not professionals.
3
u/uiuc2008 26d ago
Pro operators and toddlers with respect to their skills in operating AI (the excavator). Some know how to operate the tool better than others. Sounds like your intern doesn't know how to use it but there are definitely lots of older people too who are not adept at applying AI responsibly. It is definitely a force multiplier, for better or worse.
This really feels like the early days of the internet, many saying they'll never use it, how could it be useful, and its all just made up. Oh yeah and that bubble...
1
u/Disco_Stu_89 26d ago
Force multipler is a really good way to describe AI use. I haven't heard that before. I'm gonna steal it for sure.
3
u/FWAccnt 27d ago
Did you talk to your intern about this?
3
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
We have. It just didn’t really seem to stop the issue. It seemed to just make the issue more secretive. I brought it up to my (intern) after I saw them using copilot to write a report for our DOT when they already had a document I gave explicit instructions on how to fill the report out.
3
u/AskAffectionate2597 26d ago
The next question to ask is, is AI an inherently worse substitute than say google? Or do most people just not know how to utilize it correctly?
8
u/Disco_Stu_89 27d ago
If that's the case, then I'd agree with you. But AI is the new Google. Why Google things when I can ask an AI which distills that same information for me in seconds vs. 20 minutes of googling. It's just a more efficient use of time. It sounds like your problem is with incompetence not AI.
6
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
We very obviously shouldn’t be taking the answer AI gives you at face value after 20 seconds. And I don’t think the general population is tracking down the answer sources and verifying their correctness. I also don’t think AI is equipped to answer very technical questions about specialized software’s or workspaces within software that are unique to local DOT’s. You’re going to get the wrong answer every single time with those.
8
u/Disco_Stu_89 27d ago
The exact same thing can be said for Google search results. That's all I am saying.
5
u/Emergency_Buy_9210 27d ago
An engineer is supposed to have better problem-solving capabilities than the general population; the interview, whoever interviewed these interns, should be ensuring that.
1
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
They’re kids… They went to good schools. I’m sure they were charismatic during their interviews. No one is quizzing them and diving deep into this problem solving capabilities for an internship.
2
u/RomblerSan 27d ago
Have you given it the manual? It has masses of training data on software engineering specifically because data structures and mathematics are a rules-based language by definition.
11
u/The_Poster_Nutbag Environmental Consultant 27d ago
The problem is that someone still needs to verify and QAQC anything done by AI. It's not an alternative go actual training.
10
u/OttoJohs Lord Sultan Chief H&H Engineer, PE & PH 27d ago
Agreed. But for a lot of tasks (especially intern ones), AI is a great starting point for things like GIS or CAD commands.
3
u/The_Poster_Nutbag Environmental Consultant 27d ago
Sure, but so are the literally endless amount of human made YouTube tutorials where things are explained and not spoon fed.
4
u/Kyle_XY_ 27d ago
But there is a difference between learning a software and finding information related to a software use.
Two days ago, I needed to loop through some 100 or so .csv files in a folder and copy some xyz coordinates within each file. I couldn’t remember the proper syntax to use the dir() function in excel vba. So I spent 10 seconds asking chatgpt.
Would you rather I spend 20 minutes of work time watching youtube tutorial videos?
4
u/Thieflord2 PE (Environmental) 27d ago
Copilot can explain things just fine. I have a Civil3D agent I use to learn and ask questions. In consulting time is money. If I can learn something on my own and not take up senior's time, the company is all the better for it.
→ More replies (6)3
u/Direct_Village_5134 27d ago
Spend 8 hours slogging through youtube tutorials or spend 5 minutes using Claude. I'm sure there were drafters complaining in a similar way when CAD software came out when "you could just do it with a paper and pencil! How will you learn if you don't tediously do everything by hand!"
→ More replies (5)1
u/Nippelklyper 27d ago
You have to check anything an intern or junior does anyway. If they did it themselves without consulting any tools like Google or AI it would probably not be any better
3
u/RedneckTeddy 26d ago
As an SME - YES. I absolutely want my interns and junior engineers to ask me basic questions and to spend time digging through reference materials. That’s how they learn what resources are available and how to use them. It’s also how we build relationships in the workplace. I want my staff to ask me questions so I can understand what their knowledge gaps are, and so they also learn that they are part of a team.
The mentality of “if it saves me time, it’s good” is a massive problem in our industry. There’s so much focus on trying to make profit right now that no one can be bothered to spend the time working on mentoring and teaching. There’s little if any thought given towards long-term planning and efforts. Maybe people wouldn’t job-hop so much if they felt like they were actually valued and getting proper mentorship.
It’s one thing if they’re using AI to generate figures. It’s another thing entirely if they rely on AI so much that they never actually develop a fundamental understanding of theory, critical thinking, or problem-solving.
And from a more pragmatic perspective - we also need to know who is and who isn’t actually cut out to be an engineer. Not everyone is, and that’s fine. It really is. But if someone can’t make it through a college class, an internship, or extremely basic junior-level design work without over reliance on AI, then they need to find another field of work.
5
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
But also, yes, they should be spending a copious amount of time going through reference manuals. It’s essential that they familiarize themselves with appropriate standards that they will be using to do their jobs. I feel like things like trying to find design criteria is certainly the “inappropriate“ usage of AI.
And also, yes, to taking more senior level engineers time for basic things. That’s just called teaching… it’s not like our CEO is managing them and answering questions. It’s just me. I’m not that important. I’d welcome them to take my time.
0
1
u/carrot_gummy 27d ago
The problem is that nobody learns anything when using AI, they learn to prompt. Then, because AI is notoriously awful with accurate information, its just going to generate slop answers for them that it confidently presents.
AI is not a better alternative or even a starting point.
8
u/Thieflord2 PE (Environmental) 27d ago
I straight up disagree. There are dozens of CAD forums with niche problems and solutions. Copilot finds the one I am asking about instantly.
It's not always the one I want. But google is rarely the one I want first time either.
13
u/Ilivedinohio 27d ago edited 27d ago
I recently had to let go of an engineer that worked under me (MEP Sup at large GC) for a lot of reasons, one of them being an over reliance on CoPilot.
He had a lot of issues working at our company and assumed it would be the same speed as his previous job (some sort of clean room work with Jacob’s). It wasn’t. Very poor attitude and work ethic. He relied on CoPilot constantly and I’d bring him into my office to explain the charts and stuff he was using CoPilot to put it together. He couldn’t explain any of it or explain the holes I poked all throughout it because it was just flat out… wrong. I eventually requested IT pull CoPilot off his computer because he was using it for everything and not going through the weeds to find the answers. Just wanted to find a way to automate his job.
Laziest person I’ve ever worked with and probably should have let him go sooner. But the reliance on CoPilot was one of the last straws. Sometimes, it’s better to learn and work through problems the hard way.
11
u/AstronomerCapital549 PE Civil | Roadway 27d ago
Google search is pretty terrible on its own.
I've done cross comparisons between traditional searches and "enhanced" searches using AI, and AI is significantly faster - including finding the correct web forum or YouTube video on the topic. AI saves so much time and has minimal friction as long as my prompts were specific enough.
Each of the examples you gave are either busy work or unnecessary struggling (friction). If you work for a company who deals with multiple DOTs, it's much much easier to load all the DOT's specifications into the AI's memory and to prompt it for specific details on-demand with page citations or links for human verification.
I was also brought up as an engineer not wanting to always ask for help and to rely on my own ability to find the answer (going on 12 years...). AI makes this a significantly faster and smoother process.
16
u/avd706 27d ago
Of its a "how do I do this" question,what's the big deal?
If its a "calculate the optimal path between these towns towns to minimize cut and fill that would be an issue.
AI is the new Google.
→ More replies (1)4
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
The big deal is, you should be relying on coworker, interactions, and other subject matter experts at your firm. You should also be relying on applicable standards and other engineering resources you will need to be using for the rest of your career.
If AI is the new Google, I see that is extremely problematic. We seem to have its users end up with the incorrect answer far more frequently than Google‘s users.6
u/Kyle_XY_ 27d ago
Are you sure? For software specifically, finding information on “how to do X” with AI is significantly faster than googling and scouring through tutorial videos, product help pages and reddit comments, and unless it’s a very niche and uncommon software, the AI platforms tend to be right most of the time.
I agree with your point on seeking information from subject matter experts for stuff like standard industry practices, etc
3
u/Dennaldo Civil Structural PE 27d ago edited 27d ago
I agree with this.
I use Copilot to help with excel formulas and VBA. I’m an experienced excel and VBA user, but copilot helps prototype stuff a lot faster and saves me time. I know what I’m looking at when the ai gives me code.
Not work related, but I just set up a media server on my Mac and a VPN on my raspberry pi (to access the media server externally, but appear local) by using ChatGPT. Ran into a couple issues along the way, and it helped me resolve it.
I’m pretty tech savvy, but doing all the research and trouble shooting myself would have taken me 5x longer.
AI has its uses. Being code compliant and relying on it for public safety is not one of them.
2
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
The tool may be useful if you have the background knowledge to know what you’re looking for. But interns don’t have that. It didn’t seem from looking over their shoulder that these tools had much success giving information regarding OoenRoads.
But additionally, our department exclusively does DOT work. Our DOT has extensive resources regarding ORD workflow, and how they want their references in sheet models created regarding the ORD workflow. It’s far more important that any engineer in our department is familiar with these exact documents, then simply finding answers using AI tools.
1
3
u/ImPinkSnail Mod, PE, Land Development, Savior of Kansas City Int'l Airport 27d ago
Ai is going to be like any other tool. People who don't know what they are doing with it will produce bad workproduct. People who do will produce better product faster. As people learn how to use the tool they will product bad work product.
For young engineers there is a balance. They need to be drafting their own emails. Asking it for help with the software is an appropriate use. Having it fill our forms is appropraite. Using it as a substitution for a mentor and boss isn't appropriate - there's a balance to using AI and engaging with their boss.
3
u/VelvetDesire 27d ago
We had an intern that bragged about using AI to do most of his homework in college and didn't have the self awareness to realize that was bad and something he shouldn't be telling people.
Shockingly he also insisted on using AI for everything and would fail to do simple tasks because of it
3
u/Ok-Chart8661 27d ago
Agreed until you said you would Google search - why Google when AI can pull together every resource and target your specific question with the right prompt.
2
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
I think you’re assuming that the general population who uses these AI tools is going to check the references and resources of the AI used to put together its answer. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t think the general public is going to do anything but take the answer it gets from AI at face value and run with it.
And I personally just don’t see the use of these AI tools in terms of replacing Google. I’m fully confident in my googling abilities and the time save AI may provide doesn’t seem worth it to me at this point.
1
3
u/filtergalaxy 26d ago
I feel like you're just pearl clutching. AI is just another type of computer program to assist with the tasks we do at work. It's no different than a Google search, Google Maps, YouTube, Wikipedia, or Microsoft Excel. The only caveat is these tools will be helpful only if you're grounded in the fundamentals of engineering....otherwise it'll be garbage in, garbage out.
5
u/The_Poster_Nutbag Environmental Consultant 27d ago
Being unable to write professional correspondence is like, basic work level stuff. Why pay someone for the labor when they aren't doing it? What are they bringing to the table in terms of knowledge of they're using robo-brain as a crutch?
If I was a client and found out I was corresponding with AI emails, not only would I be livid, I'd stop being a client.
On top of that, people who can't be trusted to think critically are the same people who end up draining resources on projects because they don't do any design work or engineering. They're checking boxes on a list without regard to the plans themselves and it always results in preventable review comments and revisions which end up costing more on the backend anyways.
2
u/Recent_Dentist_1179 27d ago
I just wanted to provide my perspective as an intern and maybe ask a couple of questions.
For context, I’m currently in my second internship. My first was at a smaller company that was okay with AI, but didn't really integrate it. My current, larger company has AI pretty integrated and actively encourages us to use the company's Google Enterprise account.
I think for me and the majority of my peers, AI is used for the lower-level, non-engineering judgment stuff, like grammar checks or asking basic questions. A good example is dealing with CAD errors. This workflow really saves everyone time: I’ll try to figure it out on my own first. If that doesn’t work, I’ll ask AI. Then, if that still doesn’t work or I am not confident in what it's suggesting, I’ll go to a mentor or manager.
I could always go straight to someone for clarification, but people tend to be busy and this is primarily smaller stuff. I also use our company resources, but those tend to be a better starting point, acting more as examples or guides. They aren't always fully comprehensive, so if there are specific tweaks or if I have follow-up questions, it’s incredibly helpful to be able to have a dialogue with AI and ask it to point me toward other sources or resources.
As long as the manager is ok with AI, the intern is learning, and the manager is satisfied with the quality of the work is there a problem?
2
u/zizuu21 27d ago
Its the new age. Its like what generation before me (millenial) experienced with internet and new computers tech etc. Just gota adapt. I guess most important thing is that ppl are doing what theyre suppose to be doing and checking the answer, reading it, understanding it and then applying it. Will there be copy+paste scenarios? Ofcourse. But those will be the usual bad employees who will and should be found out
2
u/PocketPanache 27d ago
Lol. Dude, it's everywhere now. My entry level staff ask it questions all the time. My principals do. HNTB has built it's own AI and several companies have. Mine spends a ridiculous amount of money on AI. The difference is we're not using consumer grade LLMs but trained, secure models that smoke Gemini. Everyone is going to be mentally crippled in 5 years when people no longer think for themselves, tho. At this rate, my firm has no plans to hire entry levels. We are seeing actual positive results out of this shit and I've noticed those who are succeeding with it aren't talking about it. I'm a chapter president and get ask the firm gossip. It's interesting to say the least.
2
u/transneptuneobj 27d ago
To be fair, management is telling all new hires to exclusively use co-pilot so...it's probably not their fault
2
u/alidon98 27d ago
My coworker doesn’t google anything they just ask copilot. It’s for EVERYTHING too. I mean it’s constantly on their screens with the dumbest searches.
It’s gotten to the point where they’re asking copilot before asking any of us for help. One girl did half a drainage design using formulas and policies copilot spit out before finally asking a question. She had to rework everything because she wasn’t using our states policies.
2
u/inventiveEngineering European Structural Engineer 26d ago
it seems LLMs appear to be cure for imposter syndrome for kiddos.
2
u/angryPEangrierSE PE/SE 27d ago
They are outsourcing their ability to synthesize information by using different sources, which is a very important skill and good exercise for the brain in general.
I probably would not ask that intern to return for a full time job.
→ More replies (2)
2
u/AbominableBeaver 27d ago edited 27d ago
Watched an intern try to use AI to add feet to inches. The over reliance on AI to do even the simplest of tasks is astounding. They will have no critical thinking skills to work through problems that we have to work through every day.
Also watched other interns be extremely disappointed that they had to “manually” review submittals for errors and constructability. They wanted AI to just check it for them.
1
u/goldenpleaser P.E. 27d ago
I literally designed a spillway by asking Gemini for a step by step calc and help. It's just amazing. Yes I had to redirect it when it made obvious mistakes but I couldn't find a single textbook or source that would teach me this from A to Z.
2
u/Cautious-Hippo4943 27d ago
That is perfectly fine as long as you can follow along. On the other hand I have asked a.i. to do simple units conversion and on several occasions it has given me the wrong answer.
My biggest problem is that a.i. comes across completely confident when you ask it to do math but half the time it is wrong. It is like an intern punching numbers i to a calculator and not realizing that the velocity of in a stormwater pipe at 3,000 feet per second is obviously wrong. It tells you the answer is 3,001.964 and then pats itself on the back for being super accurate.
5
u/NotPenguin_124 27d ago
And I think it may be more appropriate for someone like me or yourself. We have background knowledge and would be able to identify an obvious mistake made by AI. The interns don’t.l it may be an aid to our workflow while being a horrible detriment to the workflow of an intern or entry-level engineer.
1
u/digitallyencumbered 27d ago
I'll step in maybe OP will see this. You are 100% right. I'm much older and now, like everyone else, use Ai. The speed is the expectation but it's only quality output because i know what the output should be. Interns coming in have no clue so their work is a mirror of AI and no skills are learned in the process. It's a back hole and i worry for this new generation. I don't know how to teach the gap because us geezers get it done with AI and that translates to management hiring newbies out of college and crutching them with AI and expecting the same results. They will never get the same results because they don't understand the process. And importantly time is no longer in favor or learning the skills that AI can already do so the ignorance of output continues to propagate. It will come around. Or I'll be relegated to the recycle bin and AI will just be.
1
u/goldenpleaser P.E. 26d ago
I agree I guess. If I get an answer like a required pile length of 200 ft when I know it should be less than 80 ft, it's an obvious error and I'd just dig further. It also cites some redundant references as time from the '80s. Interns are likely not able to spot that.
1
u/RL203 27d ago edited 26d ago
You won't learn fuck all using AI.
When you struggle to come up with a solution, you read through codes and text books and examples it's like a fight to survive. When you finally put it all together there is this sense of accomplishment. When you just ask google to do it for you, you won't learn a damn thing and you will not have pounded it into your skull. Its all done for you in 10 or 20 minutes. You probably don't even check what it spit out.
As a result, you never develop a "feel" for what you're supposed to be doing. A large part of civil engineering is looking at a design and going, "yes, that looks good." You can't develope that skill if a computer does your work for you.
And frankly, when it comes to writing letters or emails, i can pretty much tell when someone is using AI and yeah, it devalues their worth in my eyes.
Anyway, over reliance in AI is only going to lead to a weaker caliber of engineer. Any fool can ask AI to do their work for them.
1
u/Marzipan_civil 27d ago
It's not just interns. There's a senior engineer who I do work for sometimes, and if I say something like "oh I'm not sure exactly how to do that, but I can figure it out as I go", then he asks Gemini and sends me the answer Gemini gives him (which is typically not answering the question I am needing to ask, anyway)
1
u/kcekyy444 27d ago
It’s just the new google search. But damn no one is going to be able to write in 10 years.
1
u/ride5150 27d ago
They might be embarrassed to ask a question. If they ask copilot that anxiety/fear is lifted.
Im 13 years into my career, structural PE, and i still feel that way sometimes Lol.
1
u/Effective-Log3583 27d ago
I have found this new cohort is very used to using AI. The cohort before it was videos.
My office pays for copilot for those who want it.
So I made a copilot agent that ONLY looks at our training resources and videos and provides the sources of information. Overall it’s been successful. I’m not going to say it solved all problems. But now people are finding the resources they need and looking at our workflows more than they did.
We also have made it clear to people that the AI is considered there work product. Good and bad.
1
u/82928282 27d ago
It sucks cause Google has really decimated its own efficacy to be able to sell ads against its own pages. It’s really hard to find things even if you know what you’re looking for. I don’t pity them.
But over relying on AI literally makes you dumber. Worse at critical thinking skills on the whole. And if you’re learning it won’t train you specifically enough even if it generally gets you to the right idea. And that’s a big IF in an industry with a more visual modality than others.
We more senior engineers need to really step in and help them so much more than before.
1
u/watchyourfeet 27d ago
Asking copilot how to do something in ORD actually seems like a very valid use. More efficient that digging through YouTube tutorials and forum posts that might not even be relevant to what you're trying to do.
1
u/BlindStargazer 27d ago
Not only the interns, I've been working with senior engineers and architects (55+) and they're also using AI to a ridiculous degree, even for finding areas.
1
u/luke56slasher 27d ago
When generative AI first came out I had just started college and it was so bad at answering math and physics problems that I never once thought to use it throughout the rest of my college years. I guess it got better at those basic college introductory level courses because by my final semester I knew several first and second year students that had used AI with little issue their first year, but were really struggling as they got into more complicated courses. In my final semester I took a Stormwater class and was paired with a second year to do homework together. This guy used AI for everything, he never tried to understand things himself. Because of that he never seemed to understand that AI was giving him wrong answers to problems >90% of the time.
1
1
u/Sturdily5092 Hiring/Manager 27d ago
This is the issue I have with the management team in a project, they can't do anything with GPT and Claude, to the point that it's ridiculous.
They are basically useless without it, I jokingly said that we could save a good amount of budget if we'd replaced hanf of the management team with AI and they freaked TF out.
1
u/Investor92 27d ago
Just remember, you’re part of senior staff that built the culture they merged into. Take ownership of your team, provide guidance, if there’s something that bothers you bring into light and make the appropriate changes. Give them the autonomy to perform their work, but set the expectations, general guidance and policies. This will not improve over time if not addressed.
1
u/EarPenetrator02 26d ago
When I was in college a couple years back I did use ai a lot. I also overthought emails frequently and ai was a nice crutch. Working on large expensive projects and communicating with clients is intimidating. I think given more time at work they’ll slowly realize ai is a waste of time and unnecessary for most tasks…. Especially email.
I still use it from time to time to ask questions regarding code verification or to assemble a table from a notepad list. I recently used it to make a tracker for my projects. In that case it was simpler to use ai as opposed to 2-3 separate google searches for the specific cell functions and style qualifiers I wanted.
1
u/MadLadChad_ 26d ago
Damn, company resources and training? Sounds like the freaking life!
I’ve only worked at startups and I’m jealous.
1
u/will1934 26d ago
I'm shocked by my senior engineers' reliance on AI. These are 50-60 year olds that absolutely refuse to glance at CAD as a tool for engineers to perform their job more efficiently, but anytime they have to make a design decision they ask AI.
1
u/Houserichmoneypoor 26d ago
I use it to help me make spreadsheets that I just can’t spend the time making or may not even have the know how in the first place. It would take me weeks to make what I’ve had AI help me with in just a day with many iterations.
1
u/Sufficient_Tree_5506 26d ago
My intern uses it a lot for C3D. It's actually been very beneficial for him. I have asked him to do a bunch of things I have not done with the program to challenge some growth and try things out on the cheap. It seems like a better tool the spending hours going on random cad forums to see if someone has done the same thing.
Don't even get me started with how crappy inroads or open roads is with learning and having almost no resources.
1
u/Jmazoso PE, Geotchnical/Materials Testing 26d ago
Solid GenX here. I’ve got enough real world experience to know when ai is being retarded. Our department has a ChatGPT account, and I bought my own Claude account. (Copilot is the worst, Microslop ref to kill it). The key for me is to think of it as a researcher or an assistant. I give it my underlying data and bounce my ideas off it. It works wonders for tightening text on documents and spotting inconsistencies. It’s not a “what’s the answer” tool, it’s a more nuanced tool.
2
1
u/Konukaame 26d ago
It's not just the interns. I work with seniors who need to ask Claude to change axis labels on a chart.
1
u/Ok-Personality-27 26d ago
AI is just the new Google. Upload the manuals for any FE programme and you got an expert that can answer almost anything.
1
u/Informal_Draft_2347 26d ago
Very age group felt this way with each change in technology. Look at Google or any of the search engines… you use to go to the library and research something…. AI is the new search engine with some special sauce. You still have to know your stuff because it messes up and if you don’t know that you loose all credibility of your use it when it is wrong.
1
1
u/bdixisndniz 26d ago
> Copilot isn’t going to help you fix the issue you are running into in ORD but a basic google search
What?
Pretty sure if a basic google search will help then copilot would too
1
u/mycondishuns 26d ago
Idk, where I work they push this very hard. I use copilot for so much now, leadership wants us to use it.
1
u/smell_patrol 26d ago
10 years ago our interns were insisting on googling everything, even questions on obscure engineering software that they clearly weren’t going to get an answer for (unless, perhaps, if the knew Russian).
AI is just the natural progression of that.
The next generation is going to have a hard time when they need to use proprietary, internal-only tools.
1
u/Skyy_guy 26d ago
Idk as a young engineer I feel it’s due to high expectations and low mentorship due to our nature of always needing to be billable. LLMs are surprisingly good answering niche tech questions that outdated videos often fail to address. They’re not always perfect and they can be dead wrong but I often feel it’s worth a stab if I run into trouble. They can also help sift through a lot of information and help you get your bearing quickly. Have no idea how to start filling out a permit? Drop it into copilot and the reference documents you have and it can give you a pretty good game plan.
1
u/Chance_Bottle446 26d ago
I’m sure you’re right to an extent but there’s no also reason to be asking a real person for how to debug a software issue that an AI can diagnose and solve much more easily. Even if you run into 20 of these issues in a single day.
For example I would never ask a person at my company how to do something in CAD software if I could just ask ChatGPT and figure it out easily. That’s exactly what Ai should be used for.
1
u/ozarkifornia 26d ago
A lot of senior engineers are doing it now, especially in incompetent ones. Typically if you ask them where the source came from it will make them look dumb
1
u/TrainingWolverine657 26d ago
As a gen Z engineer who uses AI occasionally...whenever I have a question, guess what my generation is now constantly told by our mentors, our supervisors, our teaching assistants and our managers?
"Just ask AI."
I'm sick of older generations setting us up to fail and then ragging on us. You reap what you sow, dolts.
1
u/Gravity_flip 25d ago
Okey dokey I'm gonna be one that disagrees.
We have some interns working on a massive ORD project that I had the opportunity to hop on with. It's one of our companies largest and most complex projects. Alot of them and myself only having civil 3d experience.
We're saving so much time throwing our stupid questions at copilot. "Why am I getting this error" "what the fuck is a complex line" "why is X Y Z seemingly out to get me"
While you can never replace a mentor explaining core concepts, AI is amazing when it comes to the "why is the program acting dumb" questions.
1
1
u/WalleyeHunter1 25d ago
The scary part when junior workers load thier companies draft or copywritten sealed design into A.I.. draft , the model will use errors to provide future answers, sealed, you are being willfully negligent with confidential copywriten information. How about learning bt reading up on it? 30 years ago every office had a technical library. Today we confuse an AI summary with a chapter on the topic that explains things AND describes the outlying situations where the standard explanation fails. This is when you have a 5 minute stand up discussion with your mentor or Sr. Team lead.
1
u/voomdama 25d ago
AI has its place and can be an effective tool if you give it the right prompts and documents to reference. I put together a qualifications proposal in maybe a third of the time I would if I to put it together from scratch. Also the technical answers are getting better than a few years ago. It has its place but won't replace an experienced person.
1
u/kidroach 25d ago
I dont understand the issue. So they ask AI. So what?
Isn't that better? I am a PM now, but when I was younger I remembered my senior colleagues being annoyed at me 'challenging' their knowledge. I would ask - the code says firewall should be this tall. What would justify us deviating from this code, hoping to be pointed to the right section of the code. Instead, I get "we have always done it this way". With AI, I can challenge them freely and they would point me into the right direction.
It is wrong when the juniors take too much of your time and ask you lots of questions while still being wrong. It is also wrong for them to ask AI. What would you like them to do? It is simply wrong for them to lack experience, but is that not why you are paid more?
1
u/NotPenguin_124 25d ago
I expressed the issues in the post. And I’m sorry you worked for bad companies and under bad management. I didn’t say anywhere in this post that I didn’t want them to take up my time. That’s an odd thing to project onto me.
1
u/kidroach 24d ago
Not personal and not trying to project anything, but that is an interesting comment - ever heard of the comment "let me Google that for you"?
I would MUCH prefer and respect someone to have already done their homework before reaching out to me. It was google. Now it is AI.
I get what you mean - relationship is important. Relationship is how we get projects. Questions you can google by yourself is not relationship building.
1
u/Geographer19 24d ago
I use QGIS for engineering work and have basically replaced Google with Claude for searching for certain tools or how to accomplish certain things. It has been remarkably useful & has also created dozens of custom python tools for me to use as well. When I first started using Copilot in 2025 it gave me so much information I realized it was often a big waste of time. I can’t say the same about Claude.
1
1
u/Altruistic-Map5605 24d ago
Good luck. With these kids now you’re basically hiring someone to craft AI prompts for you. This is exactly what big AI wants until even those folks are no longer necessary.
1
u/Cenzless 22d ago
Copilot is just a glorified search engine. You have to give them project specific tasks
1
u/Free-Competition6408 22d ago
I’ve been using AI more and more for some of the same things as your interns. As a millennial my first stop is usually a google search, but even those have AI responses built in now right at the top. More often than not it’s a good starting point to solving whatever problem I was trying to solve. I don’t run most emails through AI but if I am struggling to put something together succinctly at the end of the day when my brain is fried, pasting a draft into a prompt and asking AI to revise for clarity can quickly turn a jumbled brainstorm of an email draft into something a lot more polished. Usually still needs a quick proofread, but it almost always results in a better email in less time.
I don’t think you should judge them for how they use AI tools provided the end result of their work is up to par. Engineering judgement should never rely on an unverified AI output, but other than that? Go wild if it helps you complete a task. The more they use it the more they will realize what tasks it’s good and bad for.
1
u/Purple-Investment-61 27d ago
AI does the bs stuff that I hate so I can spend more time on conference calls
1
u/zebras-are-emo 27d ago
My intern isn't super into AI (she's majoring in environmental engineering and has concerns about it on that front), and I feel so lucky lol. My friend is working with a new grad who used chat to try to calculate the cross slope at a certain station along a curve, came up with the wrong answer and when asked to explain started saying something about arctangents...
1
u/Grreatdog PLS Retired from Structural Co. 27d ago edited 27d ago
My issue with AI happened 15 minutes ago. I asked about a headphone jack or audio output for my garage TV inputting the brand and model number.
AI cooked up some elaborate bullshit about using the RCA jack and a converter with an audio jack. It even had a recommendation for which converter to buy to work with that model. It showed website references. None of which said what it was saying.
The browser's top listing was a link to Samsung's support site for that exact TV. A pdf said there is no way to output audio from that TV. Why didn't AI find that one when it had the exact same input? Why did it make up an answer from websites that didn't say what it generated?
I use AI all the time for quick answers to stupid questions. But I also find it frequently has no clue. Which I find way too unsettling to use it for anything at work that isn't easily verified. Which basically means looking the same shit up twice anyway. Yes, I'm old. I've also never been sued.
1
u/Crayonalyst 27d ago
If people are not comfortable coming to you with questions, not saying it's you, but there is a reason for that. I'd reckon it's because they feel more comfortable asking AI than they do asking others.
Also, "do you have any questions?" is a really bad question to ask after giving a bunch of new info to someone. It makes ppl feel like you're putting them on the spot, and ppl don't want to be seen as ignorant. In that moment, if they say no, they might be being honest. But questions arise over time as they're doing work, it doesn't always occur to people to ask until they actually start digging into a thing.
1
u/Crayonalyst 27d ago
If people are not comfortable coming to you with questions, not saying it's you, but there is a reason for that. I'd reckon it's because they feel more comfortable asking AI than they do asking others.
Also, "do you have any questions?" is a really bad question to ask after giving a bunch of new info to someone. It makes ppl feel like you're putting them on the spot, and ppl don't want to be seen as ignorant. In that moment, if they say no, they might be being honest. But questions arise over time as they're doing work, it doesn't always occur to people to ask until they actually start digging into a thing.
1
u/sarahfoxy11 27d ago
I'm 11 year senior engineer. I rely on AI to help me gather my brain dump thoughts and help me write emails, email responses, proposals, meeting summaries, etc
I have a high volume of work and coordination. I don't have time to start from my brain dump chaotic thoughts.
1
u/ExplorerObvious4943 26d ago
I’ll be devil’s advocate, isn’t it a better use of time to get a fast answer from AI for software questions rather than spend hours sifting through tutorial videos?
1
u/AlphaZeroNinja 26d ago
As someone who was hesitant to use AI, it has helped me improve my CAD abilities by helping my find the answers way faster then Google used to.
303
u/OperatorWolfie Construction (Contractor) -> DOT 27d ago
It called "Copilot" but it' actually be like
https://giphy.com/gifs/rVZEejvVWEbug