January 2025
The Armchair Expert AI Podcast Explorer was designed to create a fresh and dynamic experience for content exploration. With the advent of GenAI technologies, our ability to search, analyse, summarise, and engage with content has entered an exciting new phase.
Give it a go here >> Armchair Expert AI Explorer
What is it?
It's an AI-powered podcast explorer designed to transform how we interact with content. It lets you explore, learn from, and analyse podcast episodes, in a conversational format, beyond the content of the episode.
Why is it interesting?
- You can share your thoughts on the content and get aligned or alternate perspectives through an interactive AI conversation.
- It allows deeper dives into specific topics for extended learning beyond the content of the episode.
- For this project, I've used all 830 episodes of the "Armchair Expert" podcast, but the system can easily adapt to other content.
Why is it REALLY interesting?
90% of the build, code and design, was crafted using mainstream GenAI tools, highlighting the power of modern AI to support rapid prototyping and problem-solving. Here's how it came together:
- Gemini (Google): Kickstarted the project by generating the Python foundation in a Google Colab (Jupyter) notebook. It enabled the app to read episodes from the database, process user queries, and connect with OpenAI's API to leverage ChatGPT-4o-mini.
- Claude (Anthropic): Stepped in to convert the notebook into a Python web application and HTML user interface.
- ChatGPT-4o (OpenAI): Assisted with debugging, server-side setup, and filling in where Claude fell short.
I also experimented with OpenAI's Whisper for audio transcription but found faster alternatives for transcribing the 830 episodes — it would've taken a month otherwise!
Tips for Building with GenAI Tools
Chunk your data: For this project, I broke each episode into smaller sections and queried each separately. This improved accuracy and reduced hallucinations.
Take it step by step: When using GenAI for developing code, introduce one feature or capability at a time to minimise errors and confusion.
It's not perfect, but it works!
The project isn't flawless, and I had to make deliberate efforts to reduce AI hallucinations. That said, the results and the speed at which these tools enabled me to bring the idea to life are something to marvel at… and I've got a great new tool to interact with content for the Armchair Expert and other podcast fans!
Have fun exploring the tool!
Give it a go here : https://laikabot.com/armChairExplorer/
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