A University of Florida professor has built an AI chatbot that lets students “interview” Citrus County School Board Member Thomas Kennedy. The tool, called “Tom Bot,” was developed by Dr. Robert Winsler, a professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business. Its answers come from Kennedy’s blog, “Talk Positive on Citrus County Schools,” which he began more than 16 years ago while campaigning for the School Board.
Kennedy started the blog to share positive news from local schools. He wrote about opportunities and experiences that people might not otherwise hear about. Many of his columns have also been published in the Citrus County Chronicle, which extended their reach across the county.
Separate Chronicle columns by Kennedy show his work on artificial intelligence in education. He has served on the Florida K-12 AI in Education Task Force. He also took part in a discussion on the future of AI in classroom learning at the second annual Classroom of the Future, hosted by UF’s CS Everyone Center. Those columns do not mention Tom Bot or Winsler, so the chatbot’s details come only from Kennedy’s Chronicle guest column.
Originally reported by Citrus County Chronicle – Citrus County and Citrus County Chronicle
