In the city, we all live in individual bubbles where we often find ourselves disconnected from our surroundings; neighborhood, nature, personal relationships… We often turn to Google to search for information, forgetting about the knowledge that people in our surroundings have, and missing the opportunity to preserve and expand local knowledge.

What if we had someone who could collect and know all the information about the neighborhood that isn’t on Google, and whom we could ask or explain anything to whenever we wanted? It would be difficult to have such a person, but what if we create one?

We have created Laia, a machine learning device that learns from the input of the locals, that works with a dataset made from the information and knowledge of the people of El Clot. To complement and develop Laia we have asked the help of the communities, their feedback and input has been crucial to create the dataset and the voice of Laia. Laia has passed form being an artificial intelligence, to a collective intelligence.

Laia can help us come together as a community, preserve local knowledge and culture, promote small neighborhood initiatives, learn from each other, and break the individual bubble in which we live. Additionally, Laia will be the perfect ally for newcomers coming from distant places to better understand the fabric of the neighborhood and integrate in a respectful manner.