I Built Copy.ai Clone Over the Weekend
Tags: programming, gpt3, javascript, webdev
Published: 2023-02-28 21:20:12

---
title: I Built Copy.ai Clone Over the Weekend
published: true
date: 2023-02-28 07:16:36 UTC
tags: programming,gpt3,javascript,webdevelopment
canonical_url: https://javascript.plainenglish.io/i-built-copy-ai-clone-over-the-weekend-434eab640a56
---

#### Achieving the Impossible in a Short Timeframe!

Let me clear the air right from the start. This isn’t one of those videos when a guy builds a site that looks like another site (except it doesn’t work).

This is the exact opposite.

In this story, I’ll tell you how I build an AI writing tool, that works like Copy.ai. But it looks completely different. And if you don’t believe me, let me give you a bit of a spoiler.

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*L2Sl9OYnRlLpXXuFor3cpg.gif)
_How my AI writing tools work_

But first, let me explain why I did it.

### Why I’m bullish on AI-generated content

This may come as a big surprise coming from a Medium author, but I like AI writing tools. I think they can help a lot.

They can automate a whole bunch of boring tasks.

Coming up with headlines, writing emails, brainstorming ideas, etc. A good AI writing tool can help with all these tedious tasks.

In my case, I’m trying to use AI writing for all my boring tasks, so I have more time to focus on writing that I truly enjoy — my Medium stories.

Needless to say, AI writing tools are great when used correctly.

But if you’re just blatantly generating a text, posting it on social media, and hoping to get your account to blow up, you’re barking at the wrong tree.

AI can assist you in generating the content, but it won’t do it for you. At least not in a quality way.

### Why I don’t like other AI writing tools

Now that I express my “love” for these tools, let’s address the big question.

Why did I decide to build my own? Why can’t I just pick one of the million AI writing tools out there?

The truth is, I don’t like any of them. They’re either expensive as hell, or their user interface looks like my granda build it.

That’s the reason I decided to build my own. Because of my frustration and pain points, I knew exactly what I wanted to build.

**I wanted to:**

- Build a tool with a clean user interface.
- Build a tool that won’t bankrupt its users.

With these 2 things in mind, [Monkey Writer](https://monkeywriter.me/) was born. Yes, that’s the silly name I chose for my tool.

### How my tool works

The main feature of Monkey Writer is the rich text editor.

You can write and format your text like in any other editor. But on top of that, you have the left panel, which is packed with AI writing tools.

If you get stuck on your writing, you just pick an AI tool of your choice, and the generated text appears in the editor.

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*L2Sl9OYnRlLpXXuFor3cpg.gif)
_The magic behind my tool_

As you can see, nothing fancy but it does the job quite nicely. Also, it does pretty much everything like other AI tools out there.

And it only took me one week of work to build it.

### How I Built It

Let’s get technical now. In particular, let’s see how I was able to build this in just a couple of days.

First of all, I’m a Web developer by trade. I’ve been doing this for many years now. So building another product was nothing new for me (This is a custom-coded website built using [NextJS](https://nextjs.org/) and hosted on [Vercel](https://vercel.com/)).

Second of all, [GPT](https://openai.com/) is doing pretty much all the heavy lifting for me. All I needed to do was to build a nice clean interface. Which wasn’t so hard to do (for me).

Lastly, I’ve been playing around with GPT models way before ChatGPT was even in the idea phase. So it’s safe for me to say I knew a thing or two about prompt engineering.

When you combine these 3 things together, you got yourself an AI writing tool. It’s basically how all the other tools work. And as you can see, it’s not rocket science to build one.

### Last Words

The AI-generated text took over the world with the introduction of ChatGPT. I don’t think it’s just a craze. I think the AI content is here, and it’s here to stay.

I don’t think it’s evil. But I think it can be when not used correctly and abused by people.

That’s why you should always stick to your morals. And if you decide to use AI-generated content, always be clear and disclose it to your readers.

**_PS: Let me know what you think about_** [**_my tool_**](https://monkeywriter.me/) **_._**