I recently emailed NRCA’s creative team about Sora, the latest ChatGPT artificial intelligence widget that, with a few lines of prompt, can create realistic-looking video clips in just a few moments. It’s modern-day magic. Text turns into video without a camera ever being turned on. If you can think it, it can make it.
I suggested our team look at it for possible fun or silly social media video uses in the future. At the time, the holidays were approaching, and I offered some examples of possible uses (like elves hammering candy shingles into a gingerbread house) to get their creative juices flowing.
As I write this, I’m unsure whether the team took my suggestions. Adroit followers of NRCA’s social media can note whether it occurred!
I put the odds at 50-50. But if they didn’t, the reason rests in standards and reliability.
NRCA’s entire team holds itself to the highest standards. During recent committee meetings, members raised the notion of NRCA using the term “accepted practices” versus “best practices,” and time and again volunteer leaders and staff chose the high bar.
“We should err on the side of ‘best’” was the refrain I heard. As it should be. The real world may cause contractors and owners to make decisions that are suboptimum, but that’s not what we as an industry should be promoting or holding up as the gold standard.
It used to be job-site footage was the most common source of problematic advice or tutorials. Crews or companies would post things that were wrong, poor practice, unsafe or not secure. But now? Incorrect advice or information easily can be created from a computer with no crew or job site required.
In a world where in a few minutes a computer can generate a video of candy cane unicorns installing a roof, imagine how fast a video can be created of a “person” performing an action. AI slop, as the kids refer to it, is soon going to be more prevalent than human-created slop, which already is too readily available!
It sometimes isn’t easy to tell what is real and what is dubious or downright wrong. But that’s when NRCA’s standards will matter even more. I promise you, NRCA will remain the credible source of information for you and your company’s needs.
If we say it, you can count on it.
It sometimes isn’t easy to tell what is real and what is dubious or downright wrong. But that’s when NRCA’s standards will matter even more.
Our safety team is committed to getting it right not “right now.” The technical team spends about six months each year ensuring The NRCA Roofing Manual is current and reflects the latest codes, standards and information. I’ve not met a more cautious, conservative person than NRCA’s legal counsel. If he says something, rely on it.
When it comes to finding sources of information, there is a lot to choose from these days. But just because some dude with a camera posted it online doesn’t mean it’s right, proper or legal.
Are you really going to put that roofing detail, that inspection, your latest job or your company in the hands of what you saw posted by ZekeSquirrel1212@yahoo.com? (Legal disclaimer: If such an online handle exists, it is purely coincidental and these comments are no way seeking to impugn or defame Mr. Squirrel. Please don’t sue us; we’re a nonprofit. Lawsuit reform will be discussed in a future column!)
The point is you can get information from anywhere these days. But the reliability and accuracy of the information you find needs to be scrutinized before you rely on it. The legal or technical accuracy of that information can be a jump-ball. But I promise you whatever NRCA’s technical, legal, safety and education teams put out will be, in the truncated words of the movie “My Cousin Vinny,” “Dead-on accurate.”
NRCA’s responsibility is to get it as right as we can. It may not be flashy (but we’re working on that). It may not be live-streaming from a job site talking to a drone-mounted camera. It may not be bashing or praising some pay-to-play product, but that’s not our job. Our job is to get it right and give you the information you need and can rely on. And the entire NRCA team is committed to doing so.
So if you saw an NRCA post of reindeer or elves installing candy shingles on a gingerbread house on social media during the holidays, I assure you that roof was installed according to the manufacturer’s instructions and complied with North Pole building codes.
MCKAY DANIELS
CEO
NRCA
