NFPA Journal - Spring 2024 - 27

to reality than most of us realize. As soon as this
year, tools using AI will be available on the market
that claim to be able scan a PDF of a building plan
and perform a code compliance review within seconds.
If the program finds something that's either
not permitted or that may be questionable-such
as a room that is further than the allowed distance
to the nearest exit-it flags it for the fire protection
engineer to review, similar to the spell check function
in word processing software.
Developers say the increased efficiency of these
tools could be a boost for city building departments
faced with staffing shortages and significant
backlogs. For instance, a San Francisco Chronicle
analysis from 2022 found that it takes an average
of 627 calendar days for an applicant in the city of
San Francisco to obtain a full building permit to
construct a multifamily housing project. It takes an
average of 861 days to gain the same approval for a
single-family residence, the analysis found. Developers
claim that AI-based code-compliance tools could
significantly reduce that time by saving humans
from having to conduct the necessary initial compliance
checks, which can take hours to complete.
Concepts like these are intriguing, but
only work if a human is there to double
check the machine's accuracy and provide
a final assessment. How far beyond that a
machine might someday be able to go in
interpreting and applying the code is difficult
to say, but the implications become
complicated very quickly. For instance, if
an AI program is used to walk an electrician
through a complex installation
to comply with the National Electrical
Code®
, what happens if the program gets it
wrong? Was the model trained on the right
edition of the code? Did it have all of the
context of the installation? Is the program,
the developer, or the installer at fault?
" When it comes to applying the code,
there are so many situations that are unique and that
require you to understand the particulars in order to
do it correctly, " said Pauley, who worked extensively
with the NEC before coming to NFPA. " If you ask an
AI tool a code question, such as 'Can I do X, Y, or
Z?,' the fear is that it will wrongly say 'yes' because it
doesn't have an awareness of all of the circumstances.
So before we get too far down the road, we need to
better understand what AI can do and what it can't.
AI may be able to fill in some pieces, but we need to
preserve the human element in this. "
HARD QUESTIONS
That sentiment is shared by experts across a range
of fields in the fire and life safety world. While it's
easy to see the utility of an ultra-smart AI assistant
and imagine the ways these tools might make our
lives easier-and potentially make our world safer-
there are also risks and potential downsides to these
AI CASE STUDY
Digital Twins
for Firefighting
Using a combination of sensors
and AI, some experts envision
fire departments someday leading
a fire response remotely using
what's called a digital twin: a
to-scale and real-time digital representation
of a building, tunnel,
or other structure on fire.
In a fire scenario, fire commanders
could create a digital
twin of a fire on a computer
screen to see the real-time outline
of the fire's exact location
as it grows and spreads
throughout a building. This
developments. If AI continues to progress as rapidly
as some experts, including Sam Altman, predict, the
fire protection community will inevitably run up
against some difficult questions.
It is conceivable, for instance, that AI will someday
be relied upon to do most of the heavy lifting,
from designing safer versions of complex buildings
like malls or airports to inspecting a hospital for
code compliance, or even running response operations
on a complex fire. But ultimately, how much
control over these important-sometimes life-ordeath-tasks
and decisions should be entrusted to
As bullish as some are on
AI's potential, others urge
caution. Even innovative
AI programs are known to
sometimes " hallucinate "
facts and will on occasion
present wildly inaccurate
information with conviction.
might include dots representing
the location of real
firefighters or firefighting
robots as they work to extinguish
the fire. Overlayed on
the screen would be anything
deemed useful-the
status and location of sprinklers
or fire pumps, exit locations,
temperature readings,
air speed and direction, the
movement of pedestrians, or
even predictive analysis of
how conditions might change
from minute to minute. Fire
commanders could control
aspects of the response,
such as smoke ventilation, by
clicking a button and opening
a ceiling window inside
the structure. Such technology
would require many more
sensors, smart building technologies,
and real-time data
transfer, experts say, and may
still be years away.
Even so, digital twins are
already finding applications
including manufacturing production
lines, where a worker
at a computer can run the line
like the video game Sim City,
pointing and clicking to tell
the machines what to do and
even changing real-world variables
simply by manipulating
them on the screen.
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NFPA Journal - Spring 2024

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