OpenAI’s Shap-E is an AI-driven system that can do text-to-3D-modeling. “When trained on a large dataset of paired 3D and text data, our resulting models are capable of generating complex and diverse 3D assets in a matter of seconds,” write developers Heewoo Jun and Alex Nichol. In other words, just as ChatGPT threatens to replace writers and DALL-E can displace 2D artists, Shap-E will eventually be able to tackle pro-level CAD. Also, because it can use text as the input, it will require minimal tinkering to achieve voice-controlled CAD.
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For now, it’s a ways off before industrial design firms can start firing junior designers who handle the 3D modeling; Shap-E can handle meshes and NeRF (Neural Radiance Fields), both of which have limited utility in ID, but can’t do vector or NURBs. Yet.
Looking over Shap-E’s latest samples, as of press time furniture designers have nothing to fear:
Nor do automotive designers:
However, these are early days yet. With technology moving at the pace it’s moving, I’m sure I’ll be singing a different tune in six months or a year.
Source: core77