AI Study Assistant — Development Log

Overview

A local AI study assistant built with Python, Flask, Hugging Face Transformers and FLAN-T5.

The project can:

• Answer questions from study material
• Generate summaries and revision notes
• Create flashcards
• Generate practice questions
• Process uploaded documents using RAG

Development

The project uses a web-based UI built with Flask, HTML, CSS and JavaScript, allowing the AI features to be accessed through a simple interface.

I also reused and improved flashcard-generation code I had previously built before Stardance existed, rather than rebuilding the feature from scratch. This earlier work became the foundation for the current AI flashcard system.

Local AI

The project uses:

google/flan-t5-base

through Hugging Face Transformers. The model runs locally, meaning the application does not require a paid AI API.

Flashcards

The flashcard system was improved by:

• Splitting documents into smaller chunks
• Generating cards from each chunk
• Parsing QUESTION: / ANSWER: output
• Removing duplicate questions
• Adding fallback handling for inconsistent AI output

Current Structure

AI Study Assistant
│
├── Flask UI
├── Document Processing
├── RAG Retrieval
├── Local FLAN-T5 AI
└── Study Tools
    ├── Q&A
    ├── Summaries
    ├── Notes
    ├── Flashcards
    └── Practice Questions

Next Step

The next stage is integrating the AI system into Frictionless, combining its AI study features with productivity, scheduling and task management.