WET News

10 WET NEWS MAY 2019 | wwtonline.co.uk The robots aren't coming... they're already here 'The robots are coming!' It's a phrase that has entered common usage not just from post-war sci-fi films and school playgrounds but also with modern-day econo- mists, scientists, humanitarians and engineers among others. Even some politicians seem to understand the significance of the saying. There is little doubt that they are coming, and in many cases they have arrived. A natural response to this is to draw the human brain into perhaps primi- tive behaviour where, if a poten- tial threat is identified and we don't fully understand it, it's 'fight or flight'. Even Professor Steven Hawk- ing, one of the most respected minds of the 20th century, is on record as stating that artificial intelligence could destroy civilisa- tion, saying: "Computers can, in theory, emulate human intelli- gence, and exceed it […] Success in creating effective AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilisation. Or the worst. We just don't know. So, we cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI, or ignored by it and New technologies are creating new possibilities for the industry • INSIGHT NEW TECHNOLOGIES Stantec lead design engineer Dan Causley looks at advances in technology and their role in boosting productivity in the water sector sidelined, or conceivably destroyed by it." However, as an engineer and an eternal optimist, I interpret AI as an exciting opportunity both personally and professionally, not a reason to unplug HAL-9000. Even before the release of the epic 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, the perceived threat to humanity from technology had captured the imagination of the entire world. In the 19th century, it was weaving machines threatening jobs and cars taking over from horse transport. Leaping forward to the 1950s, a variety of technolo- gies emerged that initially were feared but now, many would argue, we can't live without – the microchip, the passenger jet, the remote control, the washing machine and dishwasher. During the 1980s, the word pro- cessor entered mass production and, yet again, most writers were initially resistant. Indeed, Herbert A. Simon, a respected economist, predicted in 1965 that "machines will be capable, within 20 years, of doing any work a man can do". Boosting productivity So, for more than 200 years we have overwhelming evidence that the Luddites were wrong. In a 2015 Guardian article, economists at the consultancy Deloitte sought to shed new light on the relation- ship between jobs and the rise of technology by trawling through Census data for England and Wales going back to 1871. Their conclusion is unremittingly cheerful: rather than destroying jobs, technology has been a "great job-creating machine". Their findings, such as a four- fold rise in bar staff since the 1950s, indicates that technology and innovations have consist- ently led to increases in produc- tivity. This results in increased overall wealth and spending power, creating new demand and new jobs. Isn't that great? However, what does that mean for someone like a water treatment plant operative, whose role is potentially at threat from automated systems? I joined the engineering pro- fession as a mechanical engineer- ing graduate in 2002, and one of my first tasks was to stand up a ladder at a sewage works in the freezing December cold, measur- ing the level of liquid in a pipe every 15 mins for the best part of six hours. The development of sensor technology, combined with a drastically reduced cost of supply, means I can now, in the- ory, sit in a cosy coffee shop, drinking a flat white (from coffee beans picked by automation) and carry out the same task. Simultaneously, I can access near real-time data from thou- sands of sensors on a water plant and use my engineering experi- ence to determine how best to use and share that data. The techno- logical advances in industry allow humans, with real-life experience, to make smarter deci- sions, while freeing up time to collaborate with peer groups and co-workers to develop the next technological advances. Giant 'fatbergs' have made headlines in recent times and, for all the technology available today, the solution to these is for some lucky souls to manually dig out the congealed 'berg, in a pretty hazardous and unwelcoming environment. AI and other technical solu- tions combined with social awareness could soon prevent these 'fatbergs' in the first place. This would allow water utility companies to deploy the some- times-limited operational budgets elsewhere to optimise their sys- tems, rather than committing much-needed funds to reactive maintenance. The knowledge of the opera- tional workers is still needed to help 'teach' the AI and to pass on the contextual experience they have gained over years of com- mitment. The same experience can then be better deployed else- where, eventually leading to the next technical innovation. Context is key One of the fundamental differ- ences between humans and AI is the ability to understand context. For many years, we have been able to access data from site con- trol systems showing trends, informing us of patterns in opera- tion allowing us to understand and act upon problems. It is rela- tively easy for an artificial system to come to the same conclusion, based on the same data. However, could a robot come to the conclusions I regularly heard in my early career, like 'this is the wrong type of sludge' or 'Stuart knows the history of why that particular screen blocks'? The use of AI will allow the same decisions to be made, but faster and with less chance of error. It takes out the monotony of data interpretation. We are all familiar with auto- mated call centre conversations,

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