The bot fails at some basic questions. Cal Fire says it is working on fixes. Experts wonder if it launched too soon.

The chatbot uses the Cal Fire website and the agency’s ReadyForWildfire.org to generate answers. It can tell users about topics such as active wildfires, the agency, ...

High hopes for AI: Following Gov. Newsom’s 2023 executive order, state agencies have begun rolling out AI tools in areas like ...

An AI chatbot designed to provide information about wildfires can’t answer questions about evacuation orders, among other ...

But Cal Fire’s chatbot issues raise questions about whether agencies are following best practices. “Evaluation is not an afterthought,” said Daniel Ho, law professor at Stanford University whose ...

The chatbot, which Cal Fire says is independent of Newsom’s order, is meant to give Californians better access to “critical fire prevention resources and near-real-time emergency information ...