Building an AI-Powered Blog Editor: A Developer's Journey

Frustrated with existing AI writing tools, a developer embarked on building a custom blog editor to enhance their writing efficiency. After experimenting with Google Docs + Gemini, Notion AI, ChatGPT, and Claude, they found limitations in each. The goal? A simple Markdown editor with AI features that assist, not replace, the writer. The solution involved building a NextJS application with an MDXEditor, leveraging Perplexity for research and GPT-4 for structured suggestions, focusing on a feature to automatically find and suggest relevant source material. The author details the design and implementation, showcasing a successful first iteration focused on source finding. Future plans include UI improvements, proofreading, autocomplete, and image search/generation.