Unprecedented Project from UC Berkeley Offers an Easy Way to Track Local Ordinances

A first-of-its-kind project at UC Berkeley is using AI and data science to help untangle this national patchwork by collecting every digitally accessible law in a free, open-access database. While online repositories have cataloged state and federal statutes for years, the new project is the first time such a database has existed specifically for local laws, from Alameda, California, to Zephyrhills, Florida. The existence of the new resource opens the door for others to generate custom databases and local chatbots that can quickly generate comparisons of local laws on topics spanning home construction to dog leash laws. 

To read the story in full from the news department at UC Berkeley, visit the Office of Communications’ web site at:

https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/10/02/to-decipher-local-laws-researchers-used-ai-to-build-a-database-of-millions-of-them/