Hafnarfjörður Dives Into Generative AI

The seagull Auður is a cutting-edge chatbot

“Generative AI. With it come new demands, both from users and from those who work with it,” said Ingvar Högni Ragnarsson, project manager for digital development in Hafnarfjörður, at the Ský conference held recently in Harpa’s Norðurljós Hall. The theme of the conference was The Hottest IT Topics Ahead.

“This technology creates new requirements for presentation, structure, and how we store data. Security is also a huge issue; what is permitted and what is not,” he said, describing how Hafnarfjörður’s digital team had evaluated the projects and how it could move forward on this path. “We didn’t want to stop, but rather continue and take part,” he said from the podium.

Ingvar Högni Ragnarsson, verkefnastjóri starfrænnar þróunar Hafnarfjarðarbæjar.

Finding the greatest value for the service

“We need to think sensibly as a municipality and we asked ourselves: Where do you start, and how? Then you ask: What is allowed and what is not?” The search for the greatest value for Hafnarfjörður’s residents then began, with both external and internal factors assessed.

In that process it became clear that ChatGPT produced better and clearer answers to inquiries than the town website’s previous search engine. “ChatGPT was better at finding more precise information,” Ingvar explained. It was evident that this approach was gaining ground, as the use of Google’s search engine is decreasing. With this knowledge, the town abandoned the design of an expensive, time-consuming chatbot that had been in development, and instead began working on a smart assistant powered by ChatGPT. But what is the difference?

Great advantages with ChatGPT

“With ChatGPT you get a kind of assistant, good at drafting and rephrasing text, and good at translations,” he said. Hafnarfjörður developed the solution in collaboration with Avista.

“They liked the idea and were excited to take part in the work.” The chatbot draws on websites such as Hafnarfjörður’s own, the Housing and Construction Authority, the tax authority, the Alþingi website, and similar sources to provide more in-depth answers for residents. “We were able to adjust the responses. If the question was complex, the answer could still be kept short.”

Ingvar stressed that it was important for Auður the chatbot to follow Hafnarfjörður’s design standards. But Auður also surprised them. “What happened afterwards, and we didn’t ask her to do this, was that she learned Hafnarfjörður jokes.”

He explained that the chatbot analyzes how people ask questions and displays the patterns on a dashboard. “That means we don’t have to go over endless conversations with Auður. She does it herself.”

Search engine development as well

Ingvar also revealed at the conference that a new search engine is being developed, designed for different purposes than the chatbot. “It will have access to meeting records, news, events,” he said.

“The search is intended as a keyword search. If it doesn’t return results, the query can be passed on to the chatbot. You can also combine the two. This is what we are working on, developing, and defining in this categorization. From there you can search for specific material in meeting minutes and ask Auður to make comparisons between them, narrow the search, or prepare summaries.”

Yes, it was clear that morning that Hafnarfjörður is far ahead in developing resident services. Forward with Auður – and forward with Hafnarfjörður’s digital team, whose work and digital transformation earned the town a public sector innovation award earlier this year.