Parenting forum Mumsnet has created an artificial intelligence chatbot which could result in advertisers using its data in marketing campaigns.
Capitalising on more than two decades of parenting wisdom, MumsGPT, as the service is called, has been created using technology from OpenAI, <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/8HyhD/www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/23/chatgpt-sam-altman-ai-regulation-risk-fears/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the makers of the hugely popular ChatGPT chatbot.
It will be used by executives to comb through threads left by Mumsnet’s 10 million users, spanning two decades.
Data from the bot is likely to be used to guide policymakers on parenting issues and to allow advertisers to better target marketing campaigns.
The service will not be available to the public, at least at first. Sue Macmillan, Mumsnet’s chief operating officer, said MumsGPT was primarily a research tool but could be opened to users in future.
She said Mumsnet had already used the tool with skincare brands to research skin conditions women experience during the menopause.
Mumsnet, majority owned by founder Justine Roberts, <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/8HyhD/www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/mumsnet-founder-users-have-extraordinarily-strong-vitriolic/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">currently uses a network of 20,000 users who take part in focus panels and product testing, while its research and surveys are also used to influence its political arm which campaign on issues such as childcare.
Analyses of posts on Mumsnet have found that people often look for holidays soon after returning from one, rather than the traditional wisdom that they do so in winter.
Online forums and social media have been a rich resource of data for companies developing AI chatbots, leading to tensions between companies. Reddit, one of the world’s largest message boards, has said it will start charging companies that hoover up its data, while Elon Musk has said that OpenAI is underpaying for access to Twitter’s data.
Mumsnet’s chatbot is entirely trained on data from the website. The company claimed this means its system avoids the “hallucination” problem that leads many chatbots to make up facts, and also counters the gender bias in some AI systems.
Mumsnet – famous for online question and answer sessions with politicians – said MumsGPT had declared that users had “mixed opinions” of Rishi Sunak but “generally have a positive view” of Keir Starmer.
Ms Roberts said: “AI tools are only as powerful as the data they rely on and the richness and provenance of the data behind it is what sets MumsGPT apart from other models.”