Digital Engineering Transformation with Trustworthy AI towards Industry 4.0: Emerging Paradigm Shifts

TL;DR

This paper explores how trustworthy AI and digitalization are transforming engineering practices in Industry 4.0, emphasizing the importance of digital trust, ubiquitous machine intelligence, and new paradigm shifts in engineering.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of digital engineering transformation driven by trustworthy AI and ubiquitous machine intelligence, outlining essential components for Industry 4.0.

Findings

Ubiquitous machine intelligence is key to Industry 4.0.

Digital trust and security are crucial for trustworthy AI.

Digitalization enables leveraging AI in engineering systems.

Abstract

Digital engineering transformation is a crucial process for the engineering paradigm shifts in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), and artificial intelligence (AI) is a critical enabling technology in digital engineering transformation. This article discusses the following research questions: What are the fundamental changes in the 4IR? More specifically, what are the fundamental changes in engineering? What is digital engineering? What are the main uncertainties there? What is trustworthy AI? Why is it important today? What are emerging engineering paradigm shifts in the 4IR? What is the relationship between the data-intensive paradigm and digital engineering transformation? What should we do for digitalization? From investigating the pattern of industrial revolutions, this article argues that ubiquitous machine intelligence (uMI) is the defining power brought by the 4IR. Digitalization is a condition to leverage ubiquitous machine intelligence. Digital engineering transformation towards Industry 4.0 has three essential building blocks: digitalization of engineering, leveraging ubiquitous machine intelligence, and building digital trust and security. The engineering design community at large is facing an excellent opportunity to bring the new capabilities of ubiquitous machine intelligence and trustworthy AI principles, as well as digital trust, together in various engineering systems design to ensure the trustworthiness of systems in Industry 4.0.