Forever Edinburgh question and answer feature raises eyebrows after surprising answers

A new question and answer feature on Forever Edinburgh’s website aimed at helping visitors to explore the city has raised a few eyebrows, after it failed to answer obvious questions.

The council’s tourism body launched the ChatGPT chat as part of a new digital campaign to help ‘raise awareness of Edinburgh’s unrivalled experiences and encourage new and repeat visitors to visit in all seasons’.

But anyone looking for some more information on the tram works, one o’clock gun or football stadiums was left with more questions after asking the chatbot assistants Jamie and Lindsay. When asked about the tram works completion date, both assistants had no information to give, with Jamie having said he ‘can’t help’. Lindsay was then said to be ‘not available’ to answer the question.

The Forever Edinburgh website revamp included neighbourhood and regional maps and a ChatGPT chat box as part of a digital campaign to help ‘raise awareness of Edinburgh’s unrivalled experiences.' Photo: Mike MacKenzie, Flickr and Nono vlf, Wikimedia Commons

As reported in the Edinburgh Guardian, residents said the feature was ‘about to start a war’ when Jamie mistakenly said that ‘Hibs Stadium, also known as Tynecastle Park, is located on McLeod Street in Gorgie’.

When asked about the one o’clock gun, including where to hear it or when it sounds, both assistants say they have no information and cannot help.

The ChatGPT feature incorporates two levels of searches, with chatbots Jamie and Lindsay endeavouring to answer ‘a question about anything you want to know about Edinburgh.’ If Jamie is unable to find your answer Lindsay – the platform’s ‘slightly smarter AI assistant’ – will give it a go. But both chatbot assistants also ask users to remember that ‘as an AI bot, I might get things wrong, so please check with our sources before making any decisions’.

Forever Edinburgh has been approached for comment.