The county updated its online artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot on the MC311 Customer Service Center website.
Monty 2.0 answers non-emergency questions related to county services. According to the county, the original version only addressed a narrow range of topics. Now it can converse on more topics in a more personable way in more than 100 languages, per a release.
Residents can get location-specific answers to questions like where to vote on Election Day. The chatbot does not ask for personal information other than the user’s county address to get answers to specific questions.
“I encourage everyone to not only interact and use this chatbot feature, but to give us feedback so the system can continually learn and improve responses,” County Executive Marc Elrich said in a written statement. “We are aware that AI is far from perfect and still evolving. We are aware of the challenges posed by AI and have been careful in constructing “Monty 2.0” to avoid any risks.”
The updates align with the county’s AI action plan to use AI solutions within county services.
The county is “actively exploring additional AI uses” per the release.
