PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia students are blocked from using ChatGPT for schoolwork, but the School District of Philadelphia may soon be using AI technology to communicate with parents.
The district is considering adding a chatbot to its website to answer general questions from parents and guardians.
The motive behind it all is better responses to the public, said Alexandra Coppadge, district chief of communications and customer service.
“Sometimes when people talk to the district, the thing that you’ll likely hear is that ‘no one ever got back to me,’” she said.
On Thursday, the school board will consider a three-year, $882,000 contract with the firm K12 Insight for a software platform called Let’s Talk. The chatbot would appear as a website widget and online users can submit questions.
The tech is used in more than 400 school districts nationwide, including Fort Wayne Community Schools in Indiana, where Director of Communications Krista Stockman said it can track whether or not issues were actually resolved.
“If a parent says, ‘Well, I sent something in and no one ever responded to me,’ we’re able to check, is that true? And sometimes they’re right, and sometimes they did get a response,” she said.
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Frequently asked questions are loaded into that chatbot function to give users immediate answers. Coppadge said the system should help the district be more responsive.
“You have a solution as opposed to what has typically been the case of somebody calling in and maybe it taking a day or so or more to get some sort of resolution or even just get a follow-up,” she added.
If approved, the district expects to begin using the widget on a pilot basis in the fall.