AI tab indexer

Inspiration

The inspiration for this project came from the overwhelming accumulation of tabs in the browser over time. As I saved tabs for later viewing, the list grew larger and harder to manage. It became increasingly difficult to search for and locate topics, and manually organizing these tabs into apps and groups felt like an unnecessary hassle. I sought a solution to streamline this process, allowing me to easily categorize, summarize, and retrieve saved tabs without sacrificing control over the experience.

What it does

This Chrome extension uses the built-in AI (which runs locally to ensure privacy) to:

1. Create a short summary and keywords for the currently open tab.
2. Assign the tab to an existing or new tab group.
3. Store the descriptions of tabs and tab groups in a tab index page, which acts as an organized view of all open tabs in the window.
4. The index is color-coded to match the tab groups, and clicking a tab will take you directly to that tab.
5. Users can customize their experience by editing the tab group descriptions, renaming tab groups, or providing custom instructions that the AI will adopt for future operations.

How we built it

Initially, the focus was on existing tabs, but the large content led to increased hallucinations in the AI’s output. To solve this, we narrowed the scope to only consider the current tab being operated on, along with the short summaries of the tab groups already in place. This approach helped improve the accuracy and reliability of the AI's classification. The task was divided into two API calls:

1. The first API generates a description and keywords using AI (with the Chrome Summarization API as a possible alternative, though we found that AI-generated keywords were important for accurate classification).
2. The second API receives the description, keywords, and group summaries to categorize the tab and update the relevant group summary.

Challenges we ran into

• Managing multiple windows in the browser was a significant challenge, as the extension needed to track tabs across various contexts.
• Reducing AI hallucinations was another hurdle, especially when large amounts of content were fed into the AI. Narrowing the input to the active tab and its group summaries helped mitigate this issue.
• Ensuring smooth synchronization between AI-generated summaries and user customizations required balancing automation with user control.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• The integration of both AI and human inputs resulted in a more harmonious approach to tab organization. This hybrid model ensures efficiency through AI while still giving users control over the categorization and summaries.
• Despite being a prototype, the extension works effectively for basic tab categorization and summarization, providing a valuable tool for organizing browser tabs.

What we learned

• Balancing AI autonomy with user control can create an efficient, yet flexible experience.
• Limiting the AI’s input scope can significantly reduce hallucinations and improve classification accuracy.
• User feedback and customization options are crucial to refining and improving the system’s accuracy over time.

What's next for AI Tab Indexer

• Improving support for multiple windows and better handling of window contexts.
• Further reducing AI hallucinations through more refined categorization algorithms and increased user customizability.
• Expanding the extension to support more complex workflows, including integration with other browser tools and extensions.
• Enhancing the AI's understanding of user preferences over time to automate tab organization even more effectively.

Built With

• chrome-built-in-ai
• css
• html
• javascript