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Welcome to this week’s edition of Architecture Insights.

Last week we looked at how architects can use GPT plugins to create cost estimates. This week we look at using plugins to summarize and/or export PDF’s right from our conversation with ChatGPT.

AI News for Architects & Designers

1. Microsoft's AI-powered feature for Office suite, Copilot Pro, is now available for all users.

Summary: Previously when launched back in November 2023, Copilot was only available to businesses and select organizations. Now anyone can use these AI features for tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook.

2. In a recent report posted by Deloitte, 79% of organizations think AI is going to impact their industry and practice within the next 1-3 years. (industries/organizations outside of AEC included).

Summary: While this is a general report including industries outside of architecture, engineering, and construction it is important to get an overall look at how other industries are thinking and planning for the development of AI. AEC companies and organizations remain at the forefront of the implementation of artificial intelligence and must remain aware of relevant changes and developments in AI.

ChatGPT Plug-In For PDF’s

The Types of PDF Plugins

There are two primary types of PDF plugins that we will explore. It's important to keep in mind that new plugins are added to the GPT store on a daily basis.

Currently, we have plugins that can create and export PDFs, and plugins that can analyze and summarize information within PDFs.

Let's consider an example of a PDF creator. Suppose you engage with ChatGPT to obtain design inspiration and project information for a large-scale outdoor sports stadium. You have been gathering useful information on past projects to use in a presentation demonstrating potential design opportunities to your team or client.

After receiving each project from ChatGPT, you want to compile everything into a readable PDF. We have used ‘PDF Creator’ in the GPT store.

Here is an example to illustrate the point:

Although ChatGPT was unable to provide external images or websites to each stadium, it was able to generate a simple PDF with all of the information discussed in a few seconds.

You are also able to access many different features with your PDF once downloaded.

For our other use case; a PDF analyzer/summarizer. Let's say we've received a large proposal for a project that involves services such as building design, landscape design, engineering, urban planning, and ecology. You are the planner on the project team, and you're meeting with your internal office to discuss the kickoff meeting and plan the next steps.

While it is important to go over the entire project brief in detail, you don't need to share all the details with your entire team. Sharing the precise tasks that engineers or other consultants will perform would consume a lot of time, and it's unnecessary for all your team members to read through the proposal.

In this case, you can extract a specific portion of the proposal using a PDF summarizer to obtain the most important information relevant to your discipline.

We recommend using the ‘Access PDF & Docs’ or AskYourPDF’ plugin.

Try the following prompt: “Can you summarize the Urban Planning and General Information portions of this proposal with relevant data including project fees, timelines/deadlines, overall project goals and objectives and any other relevant information to the planning portion of the project”.

Security and Data Privacy

How can we ensure that our private and confidential information remains secure and is not misused or sold to others online while using ChatGPT and plugins?

Particularly when working with proposals, the information enclosed within these documents is highly confidential and should never be used to train other software.

For those curious, we have provided a link to the terms of service for ‘AskYourPDF’ for a more detailed look into safety and privacy when using plugins.

Resources & Tools

For broader and more general coverage of artificial intelligence developments outside of architecture and design, check out our favourite AI newsletter.

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Until next Friday,

A.I.