Extension AI

“Extension AI” work is supported by funding from a cooperative agreement with USDA-NIFA and in partnership with the University of New Hampshire, New Technologies for Ag Extension, grant no. 2023-41595-41325 . This work includes the ExtensionBot tool that the foundation is working on in the Artificial Intelligence space. The Large Language and Embedding models used by ExtensionBot can also be utilized in other AI-based tools and services that we hope to develop and deploy in the coming months and years.

What is ExtensionBot?

ExtensionBot is a LLM Agnostic chatbot that is built and deployed by the Extension Foundation. We are working closely with Thia on the development and deployment of the technology. ExtensionBot is backed by an LLM (Large Language Model) that is trained exclusively on data provided by Cooperative Extension institutions and Ask Extension. Because ExtensionBot provides citations to Extension resources along with its responses, these responses can be verified in real-time. Our platform is built so that LLMs can quickly be retrained and replaced depending on performance and application.

Our larger goal is to fine tune an LLM on Extension Resources from across the Cooperative Extension service. Each new institution or contributing member strengthens the LLM. In addition to asking institutions to create data dumps, we are asking they create a “data pipeline” for their data. This is an API endpoint that is updated on a regular basis so our LLM is consistently being updated.

Extension AI in the News

What is MERLIN?

MERLIN (Machine-driven Extension Research and Learning Innovation Network) is a data management platform powering ExtensionBot and other data-driven initiatives within the Extension Foundation. MERLIN provides essential tools for data organization, validation, and accessibility, ensuring a automated and seamless knowledge delivery system. Key features include:

  • Managing data crawling and API endpoints
  • Allowing users to view and manage crawled datasets and endpoint data
  • Handling data validation and integrity checks
  • Displaying the last crawl date and last ExtensionBot ingestion date
  • Providing access to ExtensionBot chat logs

MERLIN will serve as a trusted hub for vetted, structured, and Extension-driven information.

Try it out!

Experiment with ExtensionBot

full page version
widget version
documentation
ExtensionBot
Interactive US Map
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Resources by State

This U.S. map represents the states and data that ExtensionBot is currently trained on. When you hover over a highlighted state, you will see the number of resources available from that state’s data set. You can think of a resources as an Extension factsheet or publication. These resources have been gathered through direct data feeds from contributing institutions or web crawls and are used by ExtensionBot to provide accurate, state-specific answers to user questions.

Extension Foundation

AI Advisory Board

This board will consist of members of the Extension Foundation and participating institutions. This board will help guide policy, feature development and implementation of AI tools such as ExtenstionBot. Additionally, this group can help guide the future of AI within the broader Cooperative Extension Service.

Interested in Contributing to ExtensionBot?

Follow these steps:

  • STEP

    1

    DECIDE

    Decide what content you would like to include/contribute to ExtensionBot. This can include documents like publications and factsheets.

  • STEP

    2

    CREATE

    Do you have the ability to create a data dump?

    YES – Ask your local IT/Web development staff to create a dump based on our json specification. Once it passes validation, then share it with Mark Locklear for processing.

    NO – The Extension Foundation may be able to crawl your Extension website. Contact Mark Locklear to chat about the location and format of your data.

  • STEP

    3

    INTERNAL TESTING

    Configure ExtBot locally and do some internal testing. You may need to tweak your configuration based on the results. Visit chat.extension.org for implementation details and options.

  • STEP

    4

    ADD EXTBOT TO YOUR WEBSITE

    Once you are ready to go live you can implement either a full page version of ExtBot, the widget, or both. Reporting is available for you to view the interactions your users are having with ExtBot.

Customization and Localization

When you implement ExtensionBot on your website you can modify the colors and logo to match your institution.

Additionally, you can configure how ExtensionBot responds to questions so that it favors your institutional dataset.

For example, a user asks a question about switchgrass. If you have content or a resource on this topic, then your institutional content can be favored and ExtensionBots response will be based on your local content in addition to being cited in the response. However, if no local content is found that is relevant to the users question, then the system can respond to the users inquiry based on other content within the system. This is all 100% configurable on your end.

For more information contact us at ai@extension.org.

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The Extension Foundation is a nonprofit established in 2006 by Extension Directors and Administrators nationwide. Extension Foundation is embedded in the U.S. Cooperative Extension System and serves on Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP).

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This website is supported in part by New Technologies for Ag Extension (funding opportunity no. USDA-NIFA-OP-010186), grant no. 2023-41595-41325 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Extension Foundation.

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