Generative AI tools can enhance climate literacy but must be checked for biases and inaccuracies

In the face of climate change, climate literacy is becoming increasingly important. With wide access to generative AI tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, we explore the potential of AI platforms for ordinary citizens asking climate literacy questions. Here, we focus on a global scale and collect responses from ChatGPT (GPT-3.5 and GPT-4) on climate change-related hazard prompts over multiple iterations by utilizing the OpenAI’s API and comparing the results with credible hazard risk indices. We find a general sense of agreement in comparisons and consistency in ChatGPT over the iterations. GPT-4 displayed fewer errors than GPT-3.5. Generative AI tools may be used in climate literacy, a timely topic of importance, but must be scrutinized for potential biases and inaccuracies moving forward and considered in a social context. Future work should identify and disseminate best practices for optimal use across various generative AI tools. Responses of GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to prompts to list a country’s vulnerability to climate hazards overall agree for floods and cyclones but less for droughts, with fewer errors from GPT-4, indicating a potential to enhance climate literacy, suggests a comparison of responses to hazard risk indices based on data from the IPCC.