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. 2025 May;35(3):325-329.
doi: 10.1038/s41370-025-00747-5. Epub 2025 Jan 20.

MyEcoReporter: a prototype for artificial intelligence-facilitated pollution reporting

Weihsueh A Chiu  1 , Galen Newman  2 , Garett Sansom  3 , Xinyue Ye  2 , Andriy Rusyn  4 , Haotian Wu  5 , Tom Winckelman  5 , Ivan Rusyn  5
Affiliations

MyEcoReporter: a prototype for artificial intelligence-facilitated pollution reporting

Weihsueh A Chiu et al. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2025 May.

Abstract

Background: Many chemical releases are first noticed by community members, but reporting these concerns often involves considerable hurdles. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies, especially large language models (LLMs), can potentially reduce these barriers.

Objective: We hypothesized that AI-powered chatbots can facilitate reporting of pollution incidents through text messaging.

Methods: We created an AI-powered chatbot, "MyEcoReporter," that enables communities to report environmental incidents to government authorities. Eschewing traditional web-based forms, users text concerns via SMS to the LLM-powered application, engaging in a natural conversation through which required information is collected. The application was built using Python, AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, and Twilio, and deployed via Serverless.

Results: This architecture allowed rapid customization for various use cases, which successfully facilitated conversations and stored structured data for formal submission.

Impact statement: MyEcoReporter showcases the potential of Artificial Intelligence/Large Language Models to create user-friendly tools that translate community environmental concerns into actionable information for reporting to government authorities.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; ChatGPT; Community health; Environmental justice; Large language models; Pollution.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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