CLAImate: AI-Enabled Climate Change Communication through Personalized and Localized Narrative Visualizations

TL;DR

CLAImate is an AI-powered tool that personalizes climate change narratives and local visualizations to improve public understanding and engagement, validated through expert and user studies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel AI system that personalizes and localizes climate communication through narratives and visualizations, addressing gaps in existing tools.

Findings

Achieved 66% SNLI accuracy and 70% FACTSCORE.

Participants reported improved understanding and local relevance.

Experts praised its clarity and personalization.

Abstract

Communicating climate change remains challenging, as climate reports, though rich in data and visualizations, often feel too abstract or technical for the public. Although personalization can enhance communication, most tools still lack the narrative and visualization tailoring needed to connect with individual experiences. We present CLAImate, an AI-enabled prototype that personalizes conversation narratives and localizes visualizations based on users' climate knowledge and geographic location. We evaluated CLAImate through internal verification of factual correctness, a formative study with experts, and a pilot with UK residents. CLAImate achieved 66% SNLI accuracy and 70% FACTSCORE. Visualization experts appreciated its clarity and personalization, and seven out of ten UK participants reported better understanding and local relevance of climate risks with CLAImate. We also discuss design challenges in personalization, accuracy, and scalability, and outline future directions for integrating visualizations in personalized conversational interfaces.