Solar Chat

(If you're seeing this, the post is still being authored. come back later.)

Still very much an R&D project, I've been working on an application I'm calling Solar Chat that is a free consumer solar technology support and solar lead generation website. The basic idea is very much like the idea of some know-nothing put in charge of a big budget feature film, but the person does not know how to make films - so their assistants have to both educate them while also carry them through the entire process. 

Solar Chat is a free web site where consumers can:

• Learn all about home solar energy, 
• Select their desired hardware, 
• Plan the solar installation, 
• Perform preparations, 
• Select the installers, 
• Negotiate and manage the financing as well as schedule, 
• And generally provide a collection of expert assistants to the consumer through their solar adoption journey. 

Additionally, the web site is upfront about the free service being in exchange for sharing their contact information with 3rd parties for a commission after the consumer selects and grants permission for that contact.

This ambitious a project is really only possible thanks to Large Language Models such as ChatGPT4, which Solar Chat uses via the OpenAI API. The application uses a combination of specialized prompt templates which the end-user's questions are embedded, Retrieval Augmented Generation to embed specialized known information, and semantic analysis via additional prompt templates. The result is a series of specialized solar installation experts, each of which are tuned to a different portion of a solar adoption's overall series of tasks. Plus additional features such as an ability to adapt their language to that which is best understood by the consumer, they can recognize confusion in the consumer and act to address it, and we can very easily provide entertaining fantasy characters that are also solar energy experts. That basically means if a consumer is a native Spanish/Korean/whatever speaker and wants support from someone like them, or support from a Pokemon, or even a historical figure advising them on their solar journey, and that help is actually real and quite good, the site can provide that. 

Within the core of the application is a system that is able to deliver expert guidance in a generic manner while monitoring the end-user for understanding, to adapt to the end-user and provide a better understood and therefore more sucessful experience as they accomplish goals they may not be familiar. It does not have to be solar installations. The system could be applied to education goals, and large scale integrated processes such as what occurs in companies. The multilingual aspects make the system that much more capable.

(For what it is worth, a previous incarnation of my work with ChatGPT4 is an AI Attorney that performs new client interviews, ultimately selecting whom a new client will be assigned as their attorney. Such a task previously required an experienced and expensive law partner. Now that can be monitored by an intern or receptionist. And it is multilingual, due to the law firm specializing in immigration.)

The web application is both a website and a remote accessible API. I'm only running it on a development server at the moment, so unless you know me you can't reach it. 

I'm actually deep in the development of this application, and will be adding more to complete this blog post in a bit.