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Council hears sustainability committee report that used AI to analyze plans and suggested tree-canopy priorities
Summary
Alder Teresa Rademacher reported the sustainability committee used an AI tool to synthesize the city’s sustainability and comprehensive plans and generate suggested focus areas, including tree canopy expansion, energy, water and transportation priorities. She asked departments to consider these ideas during budget season.
Alder Teresa Rademacher told council the sustainability committee has been experimenting with a different way to review its plans: a committee member fed the Monona sustainability plan, the Green Tier legacy communities document and the city’s comprehensive plan into an AI engine to produce suggested priorities and numbers.
Rademacher described the AI output as a conversation-starter and emphasized the committee’s interest in focusing on energy, water, transportation, land use, solid waste and building tree canopy. "She fed into ChatGPT, the entirety of our Monona sustainability plan," Rademacher said. "The green tier legacy communities, document and plan." She cautioned AI is not perfect — noting the model suggested an implausible figure for tree planting — but said it offered a different way to look at the committee’s work.
Rademacher asked departmental staff to consider the AI-generated ideas as they prepare capital and operating budget requests for the coming fiscal season.
