Joy Rutledge and Temple Dees are working at Spelman College’s Arthur M. Blank Innovation Lab to develop an AI program that assesses environmental data from plants into real time care guidance.
The project, PlantGPT, connects plant sensors to artificial intelligence software and analyzes environmental conditions to provide feedback about plant health. An elite team of Spelman innovators, including Rutledge, Dees, Grace Burch, Jessica Obi, and Devyn Washington, have worked on the project at different stages.
“Plant GPT is a way to be able to talk to your plants,” Rutledge said in an Instagram video created by Spelman. “So, when your plant is dying, you need to know what type of information the plant needs or resources that the plant needs, such as water, sunlight, nutrients.”
The system gathers environmental readings using sensors placed near the plant. Those sensors monitor conditions, including soil moisture, humidity, temperature and light exposure. The data is then transmitted to an artificial intelligence model that interprets the readings and produces recommendations for plant care.
“So we’ve basically created sensors and connected it to an AI,” Dees said. “You’re able to get this real time data from your plant that way when it does notify you, you’ll be able to adjust the conditions of your plant.”
The project originated with Grace Burch, a Spelman College biology graduate who began building the prototype as part of research inside the Innovation Lab.
According to the Innovators, the early version of PlantGPT used Arduino hardware later iterations of the project introduced additional technical changes.
“My part of the project was switching the AI model to Tiny Llama, which is local and doesn’t need the internet, and adding more features like written response and we’re working on the vocal response feature,” Dees explained.
The prototype is currently being tested on houseplants while the team continues refining the system’s capabilities.
The project has also gained recognition through entrepreneurship programs connected to the college. PlantGPT received a $1,000 award at the Center for Black Entrepreneurship’s New Venture Competition in 2025, funding that helped support continued development of the technology. Additionally, PlantGPT won top honors at the AAAS Making & Innovation Competition in Washington, D.C.
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