Decentralizing construction AI applications using blockchain technology

Decentralizing the Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications is deemed the next wave of Blockchain Technology (BT) in the construction industry. Most of previous research studies employed the AI and the BT separately with limited efforts providing a conceptual view for possible convergence in real-life applications. Nevertheless, such efforts do not address construction applications. This research introduces a novel tailorable decentralized AI system that utilizes BT as a computing-oriented technology. The proposed system is developed as an inference engine while having a number of interesting features. First, the system validates and audits the decision-making process while sharing and recording the input data and the computed outcomes in a synchronized trusted manner. Second, the system allows the formation of distributed AI repository that can absorb and manage concurrent use-cases while targeting different scopes and covering diverse AI branches. Third, it provides a workable solution for the AI applications' distribution problem, which hinders their wide employment. Fourth, the introduced system guarantees sustainable versioning and evolution over time for AI applications based on their performance or the newly acquired data. A case study of estimating the construction cost for road projects is provided to illustrate the system's workability and demonstrate its performance.