Neighborhood social network Nextdoor is taking community interaction to the next level by introducing a new Assistant feature powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This innovative feature is designed to help users write better posts that drive positive community engagement on the platform.
How the Nextdoor Assistant feature works
When users create a new post, the Nextdoor Assistant feature will present a revised suggestion that they can review and edit before posting. The Assistant also suggests alternative ways to phrase potentially harmful comments, fostering a friendlier online environment.
“We saw an opportunity to train ChatGPT technology on top of our proprietary local knowledge to create something we think really helps users create a more engaging post,” said Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar in an interview with TechCrunch. This feature is currently being tested with select users.
Enhancing kindness on Nextdoor with the Assistant feature
Nextdoor’s existing “Kindness Reminder” feature alerts users to the platform’s community guidelines, giving them a chance to reflect on potentially harmful posts. The new Nextdoor Assistant feature takes this a step further by helping users rewrite posts in a kinder tone. This ensures balanced and constructive community discussions.
Personalized and relevant content with generative AI
By utilizing generative AI technologies, Nextdoor can now deliver more personalized and relevant content to users. The platform analyzes topics and context to better match content to users, providing targeted recommendations for local news, events, and activities.
User safety and feature rollout
Nextdoor prioritizes user safety with the Assistant feature rollout. Users have the option to interact with the new features, but they are not required to accept the Assistant’s suggestions. As long as they adhere to the platform’s community guidelines, they can post as they wish.
The company began testing the new features with 25% of its users and is gradually making them more broadly available. However, the features won’t be available to 100% of the user base just yet. Nextdoor plans to continue testing the features and ensuring their safe rollout before making them accessible to everyone.
Nextdoor’s generative AI team and future plans
Nextdoor is building a dedicated generative AI team led by Head of AI Qi He, who joined the company last year after over eight years at LinkedIn. The team will be hiring product leaders and engineers to advance the company’s use of AI across its platform.
Nextdoor’s Assistant feature marks an exciting new direction for the platform as it continues to focus on fostering a welcoming neighborhood online and offline.
