Utilization of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering: Fid-Bau Portal

Utilization of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering

Reddy, Krishna R. / Janga, Jagadeesh Kumar

The ever-changing landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) has fundamentally reshaped engineering practices, with machine learning and deep learning techniques redefining data analysis. A notable development in this realm is the recent emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), particularly exemplified by the introduction of large language models like ChatGPT. GenAI has demonstrated exceptional abilities in content creation in the form of text, images, videos, presentations, and more. This article explores the use of GenAI, as perceived by people from various sectors (academia, industry, and government agencies) with expertise in the geotechnical and geoenvironmental domains, specifically focusing on its applications in education, research, and engineering practice. To gain insights into the same, responses from 405 individuals, with expertise in geotechnical/geoenvironmental or related fields, were collected to a carefully designed questionnaire. The findings reveal that GenAI, particularly ChatGPT, is widely employed in education, and research, and with limited usage in engineering practice. As identified by the respondents, GenAI tools are primarily utilized to aid in activities such as course material preparation (by faculty), code generation, literature review, manuscript editing, and brainstorming, by respondents from all sectors. Respondents identified several benefits, including the quick generation of responses, increased productivity, and enhanced text processing capabilities. However, limitations such as concerns about hallucinations, potential impact on human creativity, repetitive responses, misuse potential, and plagiarism/data privacy issues were frequently highlighted. Further, through the experiences of the authors with using GenAI tools for geotechnical and geoenvironmental-specific tasks, the potential of these tools in this domain was evident. Overall, the uses of GenAI are wide-ranging in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering domains. However, while the future of GenAI is promising and exciting, there exists an apprehension rooted in the potential for misuse.