|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The city of Menlo Park launched a chatbot called “Laurel” on its website in early August, aiming to help community members access information about city services around the clock.
The chatbot allows users to ask questions about community events, resources and civic activities. The “AI virtual assistant” is powered by Citibot, a South Carolina-based company founded in 2016 to modernize how municipalities interact with the public. On its website, Citibot says its platform can save staff time and help inform community members.
The city chose Citibot after receiving positive feedback from other Peninsula cities that have already deployed the technology, including Palo Alto, Burlingame and South San Francisco, according to Menlo Park spokesperson Kendra Calvert.
Menlo Park named its bot Laurel, a reference to the native tree and the name of the street where City Hall is located. It supports more than 70 languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Tagalog.
The web chat feature costs $9,900 annually, according to Calvert. Menlo Park pays an additional $2,100 for multilingual support and $6,500 for Refresh, a Citibot service that uses artificial intelligence to scan city websites for accessibility issues.
City staff can view conversations between Laurel and members of the public. So far, Calvert said the bot is performing well.
In initial tests by this news organization, Laurel correctly answered questions about city event dates and directed users to the appropriate city webpages.
However, in queries posed by The Almanac, Laurel incorrectly stated that city offices are closed every Friday; in fact, they are closed every other Friday. It also said voting was already open for the November election. Voting won’t start until ballots are sent out in the first week of October.
In one instance, the bot incorrectly identified Jen Wolosin, Lucas Ramirez and Ryan Slocum as current Menlo Park councilmembers. Wolosin is a former councilmember whose term ended in 2025. Ramirez is on the Mountain View City Council and has no political connection to Menlo Park. “Ryan Slocum” appears to be a hallucinated name. The bot also provided fictitious contact information for the three and an incorrect phone number for a current councilmember.
Most Popular
Parent group calls for Sequoia high school district superintendent to be firedSeptember 10, 2026 5:09 pm
