©2026 This excerpt taken from the article of the same name which appeared in ASHRAE Journal, vol. 68, No. 6, June 2026.
The Sacred Trust in the Era of AI: Why Engineering Ethics Matter More Than Ever
By Jeff Gatlin
Jeff Gatlin, P.E., is the central energy plant manager for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
In February 1996, I received my Professional Engineer license. Thirty years later, I understand something I could not have grasped that day: when you accept a P.E. license, you are not simply gaining professional credentials. You are accepting a sacred trust—a responsibility to public health, safety and welfare that transcends technical competence and touches the moral core of what it means to serve humanity through engineering.
This trust has never been more important. As artificial intelligence (AI) promises to optimize our calculations and handle tasks that once required human judgment—and as our profession faces pressures to move faster and cheaper—we must ask: What makes engineers irreplaceable? What is the essence of engineering that no algorithm can capture?
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