In the Terms

Reading long, complex terms and conditions can be overwhelming. Often, we skip over them—only to find hidden fees or charges later. For example, students have been unknowingly charged by Amazon for not fully understanding the fine print. This issue is common across many services, and it's easy to miss important details.

We realized there needed to be a better way to navigate these agreements. So, we created the Terms and Conditions AI Assistant. This tool pops up when you’re about to click “Agree” on a website. It shows you the main points of the contract side-by-side with the original text, breaking it down into simple, plain language. You can also dive deeper, exploring each section step-by-step to understand exactly what you're agreeing to.

Unlike ChatGPT, our assistant is designed specifically for contracts, making it feel like you have an AI-powered contract lawyer guiding you through the legal jargon. With this tool, you gain clarity and control over the terms you’re accepting, reducing the chances of unexpected surprises.

How We Built It

To create our Terms and Conditions AI Assistant, we combined AI training with Python and PyQt5 to develop a seamless popup experience. We used Google Gemini as the core AI model, which allowed us to generate concise, understandable summaries of legal text.

The AI wasn't just built to summarize—it was trained to think like a lawyer. We provided it with specialized legal sources, enabling it to comprehend and break down complex contractual language. This made the assistant not only a summarizer but a sophisticated tool for understanding legal jargon, much like having a lawyer explain the terms to you.

Initially, we planned to create this tool as a browser extension, but after some consideration, we opted for a popup that could easily integrate with websites. Along the way, we faced several challenges—most notably, building the AI chatbot and learning PyQt5, a framework that two-thirds of our team had never worked with before.

We spent countless hours downloading and configuring Python libraries and ensuring all the different versions worked together. It wasn’t easy, but the result is a tool that helps users easily understand complex terms and conditions, saving them time and potential headaches.