Klero

Klero reimagines civic education via Zoom and Render, hosting 1-on-1 discussions with Live AI feedback on student deliberation and disagreement to combat polarization and restore critical thinking.

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Inspiration

In an era where AI-driven echo chambers and political polarization are eroding critical thinking, Klero was born from a desire to return to the roots of healthy civic discourse.

Our primary inspiration came from Stanford research on deliberative democracy, which demonstrates a powerful truth: when ordinary citizens engage in structured conversations with those they disagree with, they become less polarized and more informed. We wanted to scale this phenomenon. Instead of letting students remain in "ideological bubbles" within their own schools, we built Klero to connect them with peers across the country, turning disagreement into a tool for education rather than a source of division.

What it does

Klero is a civic education platform that hosts structured 1-on-1 video discussions. It moves beyond simple "chatting" by providing personalized feedback on the quality of the student's deliberation.

The User Journey:

  1. Profile: Users complete a political orientation survey and select topics they are passionate about.
  2. Match: Our engine pairs the user with someone holding a different perspective on the same topic.
  3. Deliberate: The pair engages in a video dialogue guided by an AI Moderator that ensures the conversation remains productive and follows deliberative norms.

How we built it

We built Klero using a robust, modern tech stack designed for real-time interaction:

  • Frontend: We used Nuxt and Vue to create a responsive, polished user interface.
  • Infrastructure: The platform is hosted on Render, providing a reliable backend environment for our matchmaking logic.
  • Communication: We integrated the Zoom SDK to handle high-quality video and audio streams.
  • Intelligence: The "brain" of our platform is the Gemini Live API, which powers our AI Moderator. This allows for real-time, low-latency AI moderation that understands the nuance of a political conversation.
  • Backend: We used Drizzle ORM with PostgreSQL to store data.

Challenges we ran into

The road to a polished product had its fair share of technical hurdles:

  • Zoom SDK Integration: Managing the complexities of a third-party video SDK while maintaining a custom UI was a significant lift.
  • Transcription: Getting accurate, real-time transcription to feed into our AI was difficult, especially when two people are speaking passionately.
  • Dynamic Moderation: Instructing the Gemini Live AI to act as a "nudge" rather than a "policeman" was a delicate balancing act. We had to fine-tune the prompts to ensure it only interjected when relevant to the deliberative norms, rather than interrupting the natural flow of the conversation.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are incredibly proud of how quickly we moved from a conceptual framework to a fully functional platform. Within a limited timeframe, we successfully implemented:

  • A sophisticated matchmaking engine based on political orientation.
  • Pre- and post-session surveys to track changes in student sentiment.
  • A live AI moderator that provides constructive feedback on deliberation quality.
  • A seamless integration of video, AI, and data tracking.

What we learned

This project was a masterclass in integration and rapid prototyping. We learned how the Zoom SDK and Render can be leveraged to quickly build custom communication tools. We also learned the transformative potential of the Gemini Live API—seeing how AI can be used not just to generate text, but to facilitate better human-to-human connection. We also gained significant experience in troubleshooting complex API interactions under pressure to deliver a polished final product.

What's next for Klero

The next chapter for Klero is all about validation and scale:

  • Stanford Deliberative Democracy Lab: We plan to reach out to our contacts here to run large-scale pilot tests using their extensive network of school collaborations.
  • Stanford COLLEGE Program: We believe Klero is a perfect fit for the COLLEGE 102: Citizenship in the 21st Century curriculum, specifically its focus on dialogue and disagreement.
  • Global Scaling: Beyond the US, we see a future where Klero facilitates cross-border dialogues, helping students around the world understand global perspectives.

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