Letter From the President: Meet Chimothy!

By Bill Thornton, President, National Chimney Sweep Guild

Chimothy is our new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot within the virtual reality (VR) learning platform that we’ve been developing with From the Future. An AI chatbot is a computer program that is trained to have human-like conversations based on data we provide it.

Do you have a question about codes and standards? Ask Chimothy! Maybe in the not-too-distant future, there will be robots who will take over the wheel of our trucks and perform dangerous roof work! Don’t laugh. I saw it on The Simpsons, so it must be true.

All kidding aside – technology like Chimothy may help industries like ours automate tasks in the future. Starting in our warehouses, AI technology could automatically order supplies from our service providers, receive them, and then place them in specific areas of the shop for loading on the day of the work. This could be a HUGE benefit for our businesses. It’s already happening at larger facilities in shipping and retail industries.

The theme of this issue of Sweeping is Technology and Equipment. In the following pages, we’ll be diving deeper into the educational aspect of this topic. But if you want to see the cool new tools or products for yourself, I would encourage you to check out an upcoming trade show – like the 2024 Chimney Expo in August (registration is open now – more on page 18)!

By the way, you can try chatting with Chimothy right now for free without a subscription! Visit ftfvr.com/ncsg and ask him a question. Keep in mind that we’re still training Chimothy, so he might not have all the answers... yet.