Technological and innovative developments in cities are evolving rapidly, and modern people also have unprecedented access to information and resources that could help them participate in shaping their environment. Taking advantage of the novel artificial intelligence and cloud computing services, this project aims to apply generative AI technologies to develop an AI-driven chatbot with various urban knowledge inputs and Open AI API to facilitate the interaction between people and the environment they are familiar with in daily life.
The essence of this kind of process is similar to traditional survey, where participants were asked to follow the question structures and answer what planners and decision-makers planned to ask. Although these kinds of questioner-led approaches can guide participants in constructive ways and ensure the effectiveness of their contributions, such methods limit participants’ engagement to some extent and may not help foster a sense of belonging, as most participants are placed in a passive role in the public participation. Therefore, in this project, we hope to utilize chatbots and generative AI to develop a participant-led method that encourages participants’ active participation. Through conversations with the AI-driven urban chatbot, generative AI technology can expand discussions based on participants’ responses, inspiring them to continuously express their viewpoints, which is valuable for designers to gain relevant insights from these conversations.