Hi. Licensed architect here. I am absolutely all for further automation in the AEC sector. But if a licensed MEP used this I would report them to the state for violating the standard of care.

Across the licensed professions in building design, our license requirements state (in summary) that we certify that the documents were prepared under our "close supervision."

I think in all states if A and E professionals form a corporation it must be one with PERSONAL liability. Corporate structures that shield the licensees from personal liability are not allowed. In extreme cases we can even be held criminally liable if work performed under our license is negligent. And you can't get away with being clever and not "stamping" the work. I think in all states you can prepare documents for permitting a single family home without a license. However, if you ARE licensed, in most states you're still required to stamp the documents - or even in the most permissive states you are considered to have legally certified the documents if they are produced by an office with a licensed A or E professional.

Our licenses are not about ability, they're about liability. And it's not just the license holder deciding acceptable levels of risk. Even more it's the professional liability insurer for what's commonly called your "Errors and Omissions" policy. I don't use my license at the moment, but when I worked for other licensed architects, often their policy stipulated that to maintain their policy even their employees had to take continuing ed in risk management. I can't imagine any insurer would sign off on this.

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bb88 a day ago | parent [-]

Correct me if I'm wrong. The licensed MEP can supervise unlicensed people. However, the licensed MEP takes the full liability for it.

How is this different?

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Duanemclemore a day ago | parent [-]

A licensed architect or SMEP can supervise unlicensed people, and yes they take the liability. That junior person, if they're put in a position to do any damage generally has a professional or pre-professional degree in the field. They have been taught the necessity of the standard of care. They can suffer consequences - if something goes wrong it can be blamed on them. (even if as unlicensed staff they can't really take legal liability.)

What they are not is a probabilistic model that cannot be held accountable for errors. I mean, unless the developers of automep.app want to take legal liability for the performance of their model.

	▲	bb88 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Right, but there is still liability, right? And liability still resides in the licensed professional. It doesn't go straight from the model to the customer. It's pretty common for CAD software (and other software in general) to have an AS/IS license. It's up to the user to detect it and correct any bugs the software may have had.