Perspective is an AI-powered app that helps teens explore political issues through multiple perspectives.
Role
Skills
Timeline
Project Brief
Perspective is an AI-powered civic education app that helps teens engage with political issues through unbiased, multi-perspective insights, encouraging critical thinking beyond polarized media systems.
Developed in USC’s Innovators Forum Course, the project explored how systems thinking and AI can support respectful civic discourse for non-college students.
Pitched Josh Auffret, Google’s Product & Operations Lead.
The Problem
Political news and social media increasingly prioritize outrage and sensationalism over clarity and context. For teens, whose exposure to politics often comes from these platforms, this environment limits access to diverse perspectives and makes thoughtful, independent engagement difficult.
The Solution
Perspective addresses this by removing social interaction and reframing political news around clarity rather than reaction. Using AI, the platform presents a single, daily issue through multiple perspectives, helping teens understand the impacts of policies and events without the pressure of polarized debate.
Product Walkthrough
Step Two:
Daily Issue Exploration
Using AI to synthesize content from multiple news sources, Perspective presents one tailored political issue per day, Example Proposition 36. This focused approach reduces information overload and allows users to engage more deeply with a single topic before exploring its perspectives.
Reflection
This project reinforced for me that strong products are not defined by the number of features, but by how well they address the root of a problem. Early on, we explored using AI to mediate political conversations, but through research and user input, it became clear that this approach would feel artificial and limit meaningful engagement. Letting go of that idea pushed us to rethink how AI could instead shape a more thoughtful environment by surfacing multiple perspectives without reinforcing division.
On a personal level, I learned the importance of adaptability and leadership in the design process. Helping guide the team through this pivot while keeping us aligned under a tight timeline taught me that being willing to question assumptions and move on from flawed ideas is essential to building effective, realistic products.
