As most of Colorado faces severe drought conditions or worse, water scarcity is becoming an important topic.That is one of the main focuses for the Sustainability Hub, a website and database built by students at Metropolitan Sta te University of Denver and overseen by associate professor of computer science Daniel Pittman.The goal of the Sustainability Hub is to make it easier to find data and information about all kinds of sustainability topics.When we started a couple of years ago, our goal was to make accessibility data accessible to the community, Pittman said. There's a lot of great work being done in the state around sustainability, and this is in all aspects of sustainability: social, economic, environmental.RELATED: From 'stable' to 'a little scary,' AI is changing computer science class and the job hunt | Denver7 Your VoicePittman said that process included community-informed design.We have faculty partners at other institutions whose entire job has been going out to the communities that interact with sustainability data, that collect this information and asking them, How do you interact with data? What would you want to see from a website like this? What is a good design for these kinds of features? he explained. So we really wanted to make sure it wasn't just us building something and giving it to people and saying, This is what you need, but more building something for what they want.Now, those MSU students and faculty have built an artificial intelligence chatbot that can answer sustainability questions.Bili, named after sustainability, pulls from the Sustainability Hubs data or from the internet and then cites its sources.It can help answer questions like how to recycle better, save water or lower wildfire risk.Pittman said more people making those small changes can really add up to a big impact.With how much water and power these AI tools end up using, Pittman said he still believes Bili is a net positive for the environment.My goal is that the good we do as a result of the Sustainability Hub helping policy makers make informed decisions around laws that they create, or helping community members be more effective in using the scarce resources we havewhatever it might be, if I can accomplish that, we've done more good than the cost in terms of energy, in terms of water, of using the AI to do the job, he said.Pittman also explained how the tool has given computer science students valuable experience not only building this kind of AI tool, but also building something the public can use to get informed and make a difference.Like the technology overall, Pittman said Bili and the Sustainability Hub are constantly evolving, with a new focus on mitigating wildfire risk in the works as the summer approaches. ...read more read less