The ChatNetZero bot, the world's first data-driven chat bot tracking the net-zero pledges of companies and governments, was launched on Friday by a group of technology start-ups and scientists.
The ChatNetZero bot was created by an international consortium of scientists from the Data-Driven Envirolab, Arboretica, and the Net Zero Tracker, with starter/seed funding provided by IKEA Foundation.
The bot is engineered to merge expert-level Net Zero domain knowledge with the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), all while overcoming the limitations that have made LLMs less trusted within the climate change community, the creators say.
ChatNetZero is trained on the most updated net zero data, validated by the Net Zero Tracker and other sources, they note.
While general LLMs such as ChatGPT are not attune to the nuances of net-zero targets, "they often fabricate false, but generally convincing statements when queried for specific details regarding an entity's decarbonization efforts," Arboretica says. The ChatNetZero bot instead is trained on data and provides answers based on data verified by the Net Zero Tracker and renowned experts.
"ChatNetZero is engineered to merge expert-level Net Zero domain knowledge with the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), all while overcoming the limitations that have made LLMs less trusted within the climate change community," the homepage of the chat bot says.
Users can ask questions about the carbon emission targets and emissions reporting of governments and companies, with information derived from the Net Zero Tracker (NZT) database.
"As the window for climate action narrows, the decarbonisation goals of the world's largest polluters are falling under an ever-brighter spotlight, held up by their stakeholders - from investors, to employees, citizens and journalists," Dr. Angel Hsu, director of DDL, commented on the new chat bot, as carried by BusinessGreen.
Some of users would want to know if a company or government targets are ambitious enough, while others, especially regulators, "want to know which company targets are designed merely to misdirect and mislead, instead of representing a real commitment to tackle the company's fair share of emissions," Hsu added.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More