Textra Textra! Expanding Access to Journalism Through the Unification of LLMs and SMS

Abstract

I built PressText, an SMS-based application which allows users to text questions about the news and receive an instant response sourced from the contents of Associated Press articles. In this thesis, we elucidate the specifics of implementation, evaluate the system based on data collected from testing with 10 users, and discuss the ways in which SMS-based LLM applications can increase the accessibility of journalism and other media.