Text-to-CAD: Risks and Opportunities

On AI systems that accept a text prompt to produce a 3D CAD (computer-aided design) model

The dust has hardly formed, much less settled, when it comes to AI-powered text-to-image generation. Yet the result is already clear: a tidal wave of crummy images. There is some quality in the mix, to be sure, but not nearly enough to justify the damage done to the signal-to-noise ratio – for every artist who benefits from a Midjourney-generated album cover, there are fifty people duped by a Midjourney-generated deepfake. And in a world where declining signal-to-noise ratios are the root cause of so many ills (think scientific research, journalism, government accountability), this is not good.