The Washington Post is shaking things up with a new AI buddy on their website and app – Climate Answers! This cool tool is basically a climate change expert in your pocket, ready to answer your burning questions.

Ever wondered if solar panels are worth the hype for your house? Or maybe you’re curious about which parts of the US are seeing the fastest sea level rise? Climate Answers can handle it! It digs through The Washington Post‘s massive archive of climate articles (dating all the way back to 2016), and uses that info to whip up an answer just for you.

“We’ve got tons of awesome climate reporting at The Washington Post,” says Vineet Khosla, their chief tech officer. “Chances are, the answer to your climate question is hiding somewhere in all those articles we’ve written.”

Here’s the neat part: Climate Answers is super transparent. After it gives you an answer, it shows you exactly which articles it used and even highlights the specific bits that helped it answer your question. This means you can check out the sources yourself and see where the info came from.

They’re not just sticking with one type of AI either. Climate Answers uses a fancy system from OpenAI, but they’re also trying out stuff from Mistral and Meta (formerly Facebook) called Llama.

One thing Climate Answers won’t do? Fake news. “Unlike some other answer things out there, we only deal with real, verified journalism,” says Khosla. “If Climate Answers doesn’t know the answer for sure, it’ll just say ‘I don’t know’ instead of making something up.” Honesty is the best policy, even for AI chatbots!

Climate Answers is a sign of things to come in the news world. By using AI, The Washington Post is making it easier than ever to learn about climate change and find solutions for a greener future.