Paragon Project: AI Poet & Clock

By Adam | August 10, 2023

Apparently, it must be “Clock Week” for Paragon Projects. On Tuesday, we wrote about the worst smart watch ever and today we’ve got to cover this fantastic AI clock. Viktor Shin over at hackster.io has come up with a simple ChatGPT-powered clock that can also recite poetry, tell jokes, and provide you with the temperature.

It’s called “Poetic Ticks”.

All-in-one clock with AI put together by Viktor Shin. As Viktor puts it, “Poetic Ticks is an innovative and multi-functional device that marries the practicality of a digital clock and thermometer with the whimsy of a joke and poem generator.”

Along with the time and temperature, the LCD display will show a ChatGPT-written poem every 15 minutes and a ChatGPT-written joke every hour.

Hardware

For this, Viktor used a Raspberry Pi Pico, a WIZnet ethernet HAT, and an LCD screen to display the time and poems. You could, alternatively, just use a Pico W for WiFi access along with an LCD.

AI Clock and Poet — Credit: Viktor Shin.

Diehard readers of the blog know that I love projects that revolve around the Pico. And I especially love the Pico W, as it’s cheap, versatile, and usually runs without a hitch.

Check out a selection of our articles on projects with the Pico and Pico W:

Software

So, the first thing to note is that if you use Viktor’s setup and code, then you’re going to need to flash firmware that supports the wiznet5k library.

However, if you go with a Pico W, then you’ll be able to stick to the standard Pico W firmware.

Based on MicroPython, the code does multiple things: (1) sets up SPI communication with the LCD, (2) displays the current time and temperature, and (3) displays the text that ChatGPT spits out.

Just as with the worst smart watch ever, the idea here is to get the device hooked up to an Network Time Protocol (NTP). That way, it can tell you the time.