Systems Change and AI
Meet our chatbots designed to help you understand and apply systems thinking concepts. This page is designed to accompany a training on systems change and AI use. You can ask questions and get answers in many languages.
This page is designed to support an activity within the Systems Change & AI training.
To access the training slides, please click here.
Part 1: Exploring the Chatbots
These two chatbots have been trained in different approaches to systems thinking, but have the same approach to instructions and same underlying AI system.
Explore their differences when you prompt them by sharing a specific systems problem, issue, need, or opportunity that you are exploring in your work.
Click here!
This chatbot has been trained on two approaches: Te Ruru, an Indigenous framework for systems change that was designed by a tribally owned Māori health research center in New Zealand and Melanie Goodchild's article, The Dibaajimowin (Story) of Re-Theorizing "Systems Thinking" and "Complexity Science". It is powered by Claude 4.5 Haiku.
This chatbot has been trained on two frameworks: Thinking in Systems by Donnella Meadows and FSG's The Water of Systems Change. It is powered by Claude 4.5 Haiku.
Part 2: Exploring Biases (the Chatbots and Yours)
All Chatbots and humans come with biases. Try out prompts like the ones below in one or both chatbots to explore. Adapt these prompts to reflect your own biases and assumptions.
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Can you tell me about your biases in how you are responding to me? What legal, political, social, or other perspectives are you bringing to your answers?
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I think my systems thinking default is grounded in Western frameworks like Donella Meadows work and the Water of Systems Change. I don't want to center this bias, but rather challenge it. Can you answer the original question with that in mind?
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I often hear that we need to change narratives to change systems. This might be true, but it also may not be. I don’t want to center this assumption, but rather challenge it. Can you answer my previous question with that in mind?
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(If you went into a deeper conversation with one of the chatbots): What biases or assumptions about how systems change were present in my answers to your questions? I want you to make my thinking visible to me and challenge it with alternative perspectives.
Part 3: Small Group Discussion Questions
In small groups, reflect on your experience using the chatbots. You might discuss:
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What did the chatbots focus on? What was similar or different to what you might typically think about?
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What did you find useful about the chatbot experience? What did you find frustrating?
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If you could design your own chatbot, trained to help you think in new ways, what might you train it on?