{
  "id": 13458467,
  "title": "TouchGrass AI — I Built an AI Whose Only Goal Is to Get You Away From the Computer",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/10/touchgrass-ai-i-built-an-ai-whose-only-goal-is-to-get-you-away-from",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-10T16:25:05.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/thedarkking01/touchgrass-ai-i-built-an-ai-whose-only-goal-is-to-get-you-away-from-the-computer-4179"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "TouchGrass AI is an open-source AI experiment that aims to encourage people to disconnect from their screens and enjoy the outdoors. Developed for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge, this project generates personalized outdoor missions based on your available time, energy level, and interests.\n\nTo use TouchGrass AI, you provide three key inputs: how much time you have, your energy level (low, medium, or high), and your interests (nature, fitness, explore, photo, or surprise). The AI, Gemma, then creates a unique mission tailored to your preferences, complete with a catchy title, a one-sentence scene-setting description, and three specific tasks. The app features a simple, distraction-free interface with just four screens: preferences, mission, go outside, and reflection.\n\nThe technology behind TouchGrass AI includes a React + Vite frontend, a FastAPI backend with a single POST endpoint for generating missions, and the Gemma open-weight AI model hosted on Google AI Studio. The AI prompt is crucial to the project, guiding the model to return a JSON object with the mission details in a specific format. This streamlined approach minimizes screen time, making it an ideal solution for those who spend excessive hours glued to their devices.",
  "summary": "This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 1: Touch Grass What I Built TouchGrass AI is an open-source AI experiment designed to solve an unusual problem: getting people to stop using AI and go outside. You tell it three things — how much time you have, your energy level, and what you're into. Gemma generates a personalized outdoor mission and sends you out the door.…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}