Summary
- Automated morning newspaper prints emails and calendar as a broadsheet, so you can skip morning screens.
- Uses a Grok bot template to fetch emails/calendar, builds a printable PDF, and prints via Wi‑Fi printer before waking.
- Setup is easy but needs a Wi‑Fi printer, a running PC, Grok account, and it can eat free‑trial token limits.
I know I’m not the only person desperately trying to create a healthier morning routine for myself. At the moment, I wake up, scroll for an hour, then roll out of bed to start work. But this latest invention by creative technologist Karen Cheng could be the solution: a completely automated morning newspaper that avoids the screen altogether by transferring your real-life updates directly onto physical paper.
How the automated morning newspaper works
Instead of another digital dashboard or app notification that forces you to stare at a smartphone screen with blurry eyes, Cheng designed a physical system that blends modern automation with a retro touch. You can see it in action here!
The agent operates using a custom template that is part of the Grok bot ecosystem and works behind the scenes even before you wake up. In order to begin, you will need a home printer with Wi-Fi (any standard inkjet or laser printer that has network connectivity will do), a Windows or macOS computer on which to carry out the printing tasks, internet access, and a Grok bot account (the free trial allows for basic testing).
Although the Grok platform currently has integrations with popular email services and Google Calendar, you should still check the system requirements in light of your particular setup. About an hour before your alarm is due to go off, the bot silently checks your personal data streams, focusing on your incoming emails and your calendar schedule, and arranges the various elements of your day into a layout similar to that of a traditional broadsheet.
The text is then assembled into a printable PDF format and sent to a connected home printer. Although the printer must be connected to a local Wi-Fi network and a computer must be left running to manage the print queue, the main task runs automatically in the cloud. So when you wake up and go into the kitchen, you can pick up a fresh printout of your personal schedule, meetings, and correspondence. Now if only I could afford to spend thousands on one of those automated coffee machines.
Having posted her functional prototype online, Cheng put the setup into a public Grok bot template so that other users could replicate it.
Although the idea has sparked online discussions about paper use and the irony of using sophisticated artificial intelligence to read your own emails on paper, the project reflects a broader design philosophy. Rather than optimising productivity to an extreme extent, many creators believe it is more important to introduce a bit of fun into the everyday.
If you’re aiming to break your morning smartphone-checking habit and want to try Karen Cheng’s popular automated newspaper project, setting it up is surprisingly easy. Start by downloading Grokbot; you can use the platform’s free trial. Follow the initial setup instructions and install your first bot to get your environment ready. After your basic setup has been configured, add The Morning Newspaper bot template to your library.
A quick heads-up on token usage: This particular bot is heavily token-intensive. Running a single newspaper generation will consume your entire token limit on a standard free trial account, or roughly 7% of your weekly limit if you are running on a SuperGrok level subscription.