Alkali vs. ChatGPT | Alkali

What Is Alkali?

Alkali is an estimating and project management platform for structural steel.

It is comprised of three main pieces. Together, they help fabricators across North America estimate faster and with more confidence.

The Pieces of Alkali

Piece 1 - State-of-the-Art Large Language Models (LLMs): Fine-tuned LLMs, including models like ChatGPT, provide Alkali's general intelligence layer.

Piece 2 - Steel Tools: We built custom steel tools for AI to help with steel estimation, including:

• Quantitative material takeoff

• Revision management

• 3D estimodeling

• Showcasing evidence

• Understanding images and metadata

Piece 3 - Expert-Labeled Training Data: Alkali has curated thousands of structural projects and labeled them with a proprietary structural steel schema. That data powers custom modeling strategies for quantitative takeoff, 3D modeling, and steel estimation.

Alkali combines LLMs, special tools, and expert annotated data

Summarized Comparison

Capability	Alkali	ChatGPT
Chat interface	✓	✓
State-of-the-art LLMs	✓	✓
Quantitative material takeoff	✓	×
Revision management	✓	×
3D estimodeling	✓	×
Clear interpretability	✓	×
Collaboration	✓	×

Detailed Breakdown

• Quantitative Material Takeoff

Like a human, Alkali directly measures beam lengths with beam measuring tools. Therefore, outputs are quantitative, trustworthy, and interpretable.

Note: Models like ChatGPT have historically struggled with counting, including the famous "strawberry" problem.

Alkali quantitative material takeoff table with lengths, weights, camber, studs, and copes

• Interpretability

Alkali shows where in the drawings answers come from. It highlights every beam and shows evidence to explain its answers.

ChatGPT is a black box, and it is extremely hard to get it to show any work. So it is hard to understand, trust, or modify the estimates.

Alkali interpretability example showing highlighted beams on a drawing

• Revision Management

Alkali comes with tools to spot differences from addendum to addendum, so you can smoothly move your estimate through revisions.

• 3D Estimodeling

Alkali produces a ball-and-stick model of your project. Export to an .IFC file and give your detailers a head start.

3D also makes it much easier to feel confident in your material quantities: a short column stands out like a sore thumb.

Alkali 3D estimodel frame from homepage animation

• Collaboration

The Alkali user interface allows you to collaborate with AI, as well as other humans. So you can easily review and change your estimate.

Final Thoughts

It can be hard to differentiate AI products. Most modern technologies use an AI engine, like ChatGPT, at their core, just like most modern technologies use electricity.

Alkali is different because we've built, and honed, steel-specific tools for AI to use. Tools for quantitative measurement, collaboration, revision, and estimodeling, which are key to quickly and confidently estimating.

Try Alkali Here