News-scraping AI app for public servants unveiled at GovTech event

Public servants can soon search for and analyze the latest news from around the world with the help of an artificial intelligence (AI) app named BrewBytes.

- Osmond Chia

Users can search by keywords on a topic—such as "elections" or "the environment"—and set filters for the type of news they want to survey, like Singapore or global sources, and the time period over which the stories were published.

Unlike googling, the AI model curates the most relevant articles from the web and summarizes the gist of stories, citing the sources of the articles so that users can check the credibility, said project member Lau Rong Jia, assistant director of strategic planning at government agency Tote Board.

With the help of generative AI, the program also analyzes the political, economic and social impact of the news gathered, said Mr. Lau, 42, adding that the service helps media monitoring teams and researchers prepare presentations and daily updates with greater efficiency.

The Government Technology Agency (GovTech) unveiled about a dozen tech prototypes, including BrewBytes, at its Innovation Day event on Nov 15 at Jewel Changi Airport.