When survivors in a wildfire in Los Angeles County applied for a home reconstruction in January, their first interaction might be an interaction with a robot.

Artificial intelligence will help city and county construction officials review permit requests, in an effort to speed up efforts that have been criticized as too slow.

"The current rate of issuing licenses locally is not meeting the scale of the challenges we face," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in announcing the AI ​​deal in late April.

About 13,000 homes were lost or severely damaged in the Eaton and Palisades fires, and many families were eager to return as quickly as possible. The fire started just eight days ago, and while it was still burning, the city received its first home reconstruction application in Pacific Palisades.

Wildfire Recovery Foundations purchased AI licensed software developed by Australian technology company Archistar and donated it to cities and counties. When the owner submits an application, the software will first check whether they comply with the zoning and building codes, recommend corrections and provide standardized reports on submitted submissions for review by the Human Program inspector.

Los Angeles County officials hope that the software, believed to be the first large-scale use of such permitted technology nationwide after natural disasters, would split the time its employees now spend on difficult tasks such as measuring building heights, calculating parking spaces and calculating setbacks, said Mitch Glaser, assistant director of the county’s department of planning.

“We see our planners doing things that are more influential to our firefighter survivors,” Glaser said.

Disaster Relief and Government technologists say the initiative encourages them. Municipal licensing is the type of highly technical, repetitive and time-consuming process that AI software can improve efficiency, especially when residents are expected to flood the local construction department’s rebuild application.

Nevertheless, they warn that for AI software to work, the city and county must integrate the technology into existing systems and quickly correct any errors in implementation. If not, the software can add more bureaucratic barriers or narrow property owner options by overly strict or incorrect code interpretation.

"This could be an absolute success, and I hope it's very successful," said Andrew Rumbach, a senior fellow at the Washington-based City College. "But there are risks in trying technology when you lose a lot of people."

Following the fire, leaders of governments at all levels immediately promised to abandon and simplify the provisions for the owner of the property to carry out reconstruction and promised that the regulatory process would not bring the return of residents. La Menoor Karen Bass noted the ongoing speed of debris removal, saying the region’s recovery is “on the track to be the fastest history in modern California’s history.” A mayor's spokesman said the Department of Architecture is completing initially allowed comments, twice as much as before the fire.

More than 200 Pacific Palisades property owners have submitted applications for rebuilding or repairing the home, and have received 11% approval, according to an analysis of city permitted data. Analysis shows that 24 property owners submitted applications last week, the highest amount since the disaster.

La County, responsible for permitting licenses in Altadena and other non-individual areas, has a separate tracking licensing system that cannot be independently verified. On Monday, the county listed 476 applications for zoning reviews on its data dashboard and approved eight building permits. By Tuesday, the number of zoning comments listed had increased to 486, while the number of building permit approvals dropped to 7.

In addition to Newsom, architects, builders and homeowners complain about the licensing process, expressing frustration at what they say is a confusing and inconsistent explanation of the regulations. Last week, actress Mandy Moore's family had Multiple houses damaged or destroyed Blasting the county in the Eaton fireAbsurd traditional Chinese tape festival” This made it difficult for her to rebuild.

Wildfires restore nonprofit firm Los Angeles, founded by developer and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso,,,,, Leading ahead of ensuring the lead in Archistar software and covering up to $2 million in tabs to implement its implementation. La Rises, a foundation founded by Newsom after the fire, will pay Archistar $200 per application.

Caruso rejected Times' request for an interview, saying it would be effortless to turn to AI.

"Bringing AI into licenses will allow us to rebuild faster and safer, reducing costs and turning a process that can take weeks and months into a process that can happen in hours or days," Caruso said in a press release announcing the deal.

Archistar's AI allows software has been under development since 2018. The company has contracts with municipalities in Australia and Canada and is expanding to the United States. In the fall, after a successful pilot program in Austin, Texas, Archistar signed an agreement with the city to conduct a preliminary assessment of the construction project, similar to its intended use in Los Angeles. Austin has not implemented the software, but city officials said they think it can be cut out to a working day, from 15 working days.

Once Archistar's plan is online in Los Angeles County, officials hope to reduce the first analysis of the reconstruction project to five or three business days, Glaser said.

Bass spokesman Zach Seidl said it could save extra time on the project by minimizing revisions and corrections.

“The greatest potential for reducing permit time comes from improving the quality of the initial plans that homeowners submit to the city,” Seidel said.

Land use consultants and architects in Los Angeles said they were happy with any technology that could speed up project recognition. But they say AI won't alleviate the most difficult part of the licensing process.

Architect Ken Ungar, who is working with about twenty Palisades owners who are rebuilding, said his biggest headache comes from the need for multiple city departments, such as those overseeing fire safety and utilities to sign a project. He said the application could be in a difficult situation, and even worse, sometimes a department needs to change changes that conflict with other people's rules.

AI, Ungar said: "It sounds great. But unless the City of Los Angeles changes its entire MO in the way you get a building permit, it's not super helpful."

The state's archives agreement allows the city of Palisades Fire to destroy more than 1,000 homes there, and also receive donated software. Malibu officials said they are still in the process of deciding, noting that the community has special building regulations to address the development of coastal, hillside and other environmentally sensitive habitats.

The government seeks technology to help speed disaster permits, but they should also ensure that human program inspectors provide supervision to illustrate the nuances of zoning and building regulations, Lenbach said.

“I hope people have more experience in communicating with disaster survivors,” he said. “A lot of people may be frustrated because they don’t want to deal with AI. They want to deal with one person.”

While Los Angeles cities and counties may be the first to use AI to allow in the wake of a major disaster, experts hope the technology will soon become mainstream.

"I believe there is no way," said Sara Bertran de Lis, director of research and analysis at the Bloomberg Center for Excellence in the Bloomberg Government, Johns Hopkins University.

Los Angeles County is expected to implement Archistar software within six weeks of programming and testing, Glaser said. Bass said in a recent disaster recovery team that the city will do so “in the coming months.”