The Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association (OHNA) has announced that it is going to be turning over much of its functions to an AI (artificial intelligence) program by the end of the calendar year.

After collaborating with University of Richmond student researchers, OHNA officers concluded that many of their volunteer duties could be better completed using a new AI/chatbot interface called VULCAN.

This new project is the result of a collaboration with University of Richmond faculty and students. They are are part of a larger push to explore and develop AI as community outreach. The Oregon Hill initiative started with a few individual interviews and group retreats with OHNA officers at the end of 2022 and has taken on a life of its own, so to speak. So much so that the OHNA AI project gained its own name, VULCAN. The project was presented at a lunch symposium at the University of Richmond a little over a week ago.

“The name VULCAN was decided upon after reading the 1856 quote that described the residents of the neighborhood of Oregon Hill: “…so called, probably, from its remote inaccessible, though beautiful situation, and is inhabited chiefly by a hardy and industrious race, disciples of Vulcan.”, shared UR researcher Rebecca Croon.

The project took on significance in November of 2022 when Open AI’s ChatGPT was released. ChatGPT is a conversational generative AI model that can create human-like responses based on patterns learned from large data sets. ChatGPT is a game changer compared to previous AI technology like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. These less advanced virtual assistant AI systems can only perform a specific task. However, ChatGPT is a text-based AI that can answer advanced questions, hold conversations with the user, write a custom letter (with citations), and many more custom-prompted tasks.

By running ‘quiet polling’ on social media and email, found that AI could account for 99% of the engagement with residents between their moving in to the neighborhood and attending their first OHNA meetings.

“Volunteer officers simply did not have the capacity able to provide the amount of individualized support and orientation that VULCAN’s chatbot could,” says Ms. Croon.

Furthermore, programmers can customize VULCAN so that is can easily simulate officers’ profiles, their personalities, and efficiently run the neighborhood association’s Zoom virtual meetings on its own.

Patrick Turing, a student member of the UR Spider Community AI team, (URSCAI), that is helping with implementing VULCAN, described how OHNA President’s facial movements can be mimicked with ‘Deep Fake’ video technology, even adding his children’s playful hijinks in the background.

“We can totally humanize this process, and soon we can capture voting tabulations on Zoom as well without even having to count- VULCAN will simply read the vocal queues and emotional loads on attendees’ faces to know which way they are voting. No more painful waiting for Boomers to find their ‘Hands Up’ button on the screen.”

For their part, OHNA officers have been impressed and are looking forward to VULCAN’s help.
One officer, speaking anonymously, said she was hopeful that VULCAN can keep on top of member lists and physical/email addresses, bylaws updates, letters to government officials, etc.

“What’s great is that institutional experience will hopefully be fully ingrained into the program so that we don’t lose the recall that we previously had to rely on from previous officers and neighbors. We already find ourselves asking VULCAN for advice based on its AI capabilities.”

Vulcan’s results are truly impressive. The URSCAI team expects OHNA officers to gradually withdraw as VULCAN learns to take over their roles and interact more with the community.

Asked what he will do with time saved by VULCAN, one OHNA officer quipped that he “may have to spend more time on FaceBook with grumpy neighbors complaining about OHNA.”

Oregon Hill residents who would like to learn more and contribute to the VULCAN project are encourage to contact the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association via email, ohnarva@gmail.com

As ChatGPT gains media attention for things like passing law school exams, researchers believe that in its next steps, it will be taking the helm of many organizations, including some government.