Gone are the days of overwatering plants thanks to a group of Spelman scholars.
PlantGPT is the new biotech created through the Arthur M. Blank Spelman Innovation Lab, a campus makerspace focused on creative inquiry, experimental research, and interdisciplinary learning.
The project uses artificial intelligence-powered assistant to monitor and analyze plant health data, harvest the intel, then turn it into conversational, user-friendly language.
The intiative started in August 2023 and has been lead by by Assistant Director and Lab Manager Eric Thompson and biology graduate Grace Burch.
Burch, a 2025 graduate seeded the project when they first began their research. She explained to the NY Post, “I love nature and technology. To combine them was a dream come true. It’s small, everyday things you take for granted like taking care of a plant can be changed with a simple idea.”
The other scholars who’ve contributed to the project include Jessica Obi, Devyn Washington, Joy Rutledge, and Temple Dees.
“PlantGPT is a way to be able to talk to your plants, so when your plant is dying, you need to know what type of information the plant needs or resources the plant needs, such as water, sunlight, or nutrients,” computer science majors, Rutledge and Dees explained.
“So we basically created sensors and connected them to an AI. You’re able to get this real time data from your plant, then when it does notify you, you’ll be able to adjust the conditions of your plant.”
Rutledge is minoring in food studies and described having a “hyperfixation” with plants, which played a role in her onboarding. In an interview with Afrotech, she said, “I love to get people involved in plants and botany and understanding plants have life … Anything to get people more educated and aware about plants and ecology.”
At home, Rutledge takes tender care of a money tree and a monstera houseplant. She also has access to a family farm, Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia.
Dees and Obi assist with software engineering and web development, with a focus on launching a web app so it can become a “fully fledged product,” according to the outlet.
“Right now, we’re running our local LLM (large language model) on a computer, and we’re collecting the data using sensors, which gets sent to that computer, and then the LLM. Then it tells you exactly how to take care of the plants, and the web app is coming in the future,” Dees said.