Tasmania’s West Tamar region is known for its vineyards, gastronomy, national parks and agricultural scene. It is also one of the state’s fastest-growing areas.<\/p>\n
Last week, its council released a draft of a 10-year strategic plan in a community consultation paper where the data was “synthesised” by artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n
West Tamar Council chief executive Kristen Desmond said the use of AI “allowed us to have a document that’s got more depth to it at about a fifth of the price”.<\/p>\n
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West Tamar Council chief executive Kristen Desmond (left) and mayor Christina Holmdahl. (ABC News: Mackenzie Archer)<\/p>\n
Ms Desmond said the process was very similar to employing a consultant, but took less time.<\/p>\n
“If we asked a consultant to review 50 strategic documents and come up with themes out of those, before they even started talking to people, that would be 12 months of work,” she said.<\/p>\n
“AI synthesised [multiple] documents. Then we had seven targeted community workshops from which the AI was able to bring out a set of themes.<\/p>\n
“The reports from both of those processes were synthesised and that gave us the basis of the plan.”<\/p>\n
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West Tamar Council stretches from Launceston in the south to Greens Beach at the mouth of the River Tamar. (Facebook: West Tamar Council)<\/p>\n
To allay residents’ fears about the use of the tool, Ms Desmond said “humans were involved all the way along” and it was “people who turned it into the document”.<\/p>\n
“We’ve talked about it as a second brain. It’s done the grunt work but it hasn’t done the polishing,” she said.<\/p>\n
“From the strategies that we supplied, to being at every one of the targeted community workshops to checking the reports \u2026 council was kept updated through the whole process.”<\/p>\n
She said the final version was also “very different to the base document produced by AI”.<\/p>\n
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The regional council takes in populated areas as well as more rural locales in the Tamar Valley.<\/p>\n
‘No action in any of the words’<\/p>\n
Former Greens candidate and local resident Jack Davenport said the document lacked local relevance.<\/p>\n
“You could easily substitute the place names, the West Tamar references, with a completely different place anywhere in the country and it would probably be just as applicable,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I think it oversimplifies the relationship between the different parts of West Tamar.”<\/p>\n
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Jack Davenport says the document lacked local relevance. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)<\/p>\n
Beaconsfield business owner Susan Wutke also took exception to the way the report was compiled saying, “there’s no action in any of the words”.<\/p>\n
“We pay these people to come up and consult with community, bring creativity, inspiration, ideas and it’s all completely lost with AI,” she said.<\/p>\n
The document states “the plan is informed by a review of Council and regional strategies, engagement with elected members, staff, youth, business and community stakeholders, and the strongest recurring themes across that work.<\/p>\n