NewsBreak

Smarter news, your way.

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Inspiration

Imagine an AI assistant tailored for journalists, writers, social activists, and engaged citizens who navigate a flood of news daily. With so many events happening simultaneously, wouldn’t it be incredible to have an assistant that can quickly summarize or explain the news? Think about the time and energy saved—enabling these individuals to focus on what truly matters: insights and action.

Now, take it a step further. These professionals often need to create impactful content—whether it's a blog article, a social post, an editorial, a campaign strategy, or even a poll to engage their audience or complete a work assignment. A social activist might spot breaking news worth rallying a campaign around. Imagine having an AI assistant that not only understands the context but helps craft these outputs seamlessly.

And, from this need I got the idea to build NewsBreak. An AI assistant like this wouldn’t just save time; it would empower users to amplify their voices, streamline their efforts, and bring their creative visions to life.

What it does

If you feed a news article as plain text to this AI assistant, it will offer you multiple ways to get help with. Right now, You will get eight tools to-

  1. Summarize the news into concise points (Summry can be of different type like- points, headline, tl;dr, etc.)
  2. Write a blog article with SEO information required for that post
  3. Get the explanation of the news with background context
  4. Get suggestion social media post ideas
  5. Draft editorials on that news topic
  6. Design a campaign based on the news matter
  7. Create a poll on the news
  8. Receive feedback on your writing

How I built it

I got to know about Google's Built-in AI couple of days ago. And, I took this opportunity to explore it and make my idea into a live web application. As a frontend developer, I am proficient in Next.js. So, I built an app with Next.js where I have integrated couple of APIs. Let's explain a bit-

  1. The Summarization API is utilized for generating concise summaries.
  2. Writing blog posts with SEO details is achieved using the Writer API, Rewriter API, and Prompt API.
  3. The Prompt API is employed for creating social media posts, editorials, campaign designs, polls, and feedback.
  4. A reusable component for translating content has been implemented using the Translation API.

Challenges I ran into

  1. Crafting the right prompts to generate accurate results using the Prompt API and Writer API was a significant challenge that required iterative testing and fine-tuning.
  2. Ensuring the app's scalability involved creating reusable components and structuring prompts effectively, which demanded careful planning and optimization.
  3. Designing a professional-looking web application required balancing aesthetics with functionality, which proved to be a complex and time-consuming task.
  4. Making the app user-friendly was challenging, as it involved addressing diverse user needs and refining the UX for simplicity and efficiency.
  5. Researching and identifying the most beneficial tools for users required analysis and experimentation to ensure maximum value.
  6. Integrating APIs was particularly challenging due to their early-stage development and incomplete documentation, leading to errors that I resolved with the support of the Discord community.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

  1. Successfully integrated multiple APIs and created some re-usable components to address real-life problems, creating solutions that have practical value and can genuinely help people.
  2. Developed a functional web application with a professional design, making it ready to present to potential users and stakeholders.

What I learned

  • Learned how to integrate AI APIs effectively into a web application.
  • Gained insights into researching user needs to align the application with real-world requirements.
  • Developed the ability to translate user needs into a functional and user-friendly web application.
  • Mastered the skill of crafting effective prompts to achieve specific and accurate results.

What's next for NewsBreak

  • Develop a Chrome extension to expand the reach and functionality of the application.
  • Make the web application market-ready by integrating fully functional APIs and ensuring smooth user experiences.
  • Refine the existing app, enhancing its features and adding more tools based on user feedback and needs.
  • Optimize the application for better performance, speed, and scalability.

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