Useful agents worth building ยท No. 2
Build your children their own daily news show
10 minutes to brief it, 2 minutes per morning.
Every morning at 5am an AI agent writes Pippa (7) and Jasper (6) their own news show. By 7am it is a narrated video, made in Gemini Notebook, waiting in my inbox. About 8 minutes of the real news at their level, plus their interests, a word of the day, a maths puzzle, a quiz and a question to argue about over breakfast. On Saturdays it becomes a week in review with a 10-question quiz, and Mum and Dad pay out cash prizes.
This free guide gives you the steps and the copy-and-paste prompts to build your own, with Gemini Notebook and the AI assistant of your choice. Or hand this page to your AI and let it build the show with you.
- 10 minutes to brief it
- 2 minutes per morning
- 8 minutes of news
- Ready by 7am
The Pippa and Jasper News, running daily since 8 October 2026
What you get
One morning of The Pippa and Jasper News
Real news at their level, a big idea explained, and their own interests woven in. Change the names, the city and the interests, and it is your children's show.

Before you start
What you need
Nothing technical. If you can paste text into a chat window, you can build this.
An AI assistant that can run a scheduled task
It does something on its own every morning, and can search the web and email you. Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini can all be set up this way. Check that your plan includes scheduled tasks, web search and email or notifications.
Gemini Notebook
notebook.google.com (formerly NotebookLM), signed in with a Google account. This is the bit that turns a script into a narrated video with pictures. Video Overviews are in the free plan at the time of writing, with daily limits that rise on paid plans. Check Google's plan page for the current limits.
A clear view of what your children can handle
The setup prompt walks you through it in about 10 minutes, starting from a sensible default.
Pick your version
The two versions
Start with Version 1. Move to Version 2 once the show has run smoothly for a couple of weeks.
Version 1 - "2 minutes per morning"
- What the AI does
- Researches, writes the script, emails it to you at the time you choose (we use 6am)
- What you do
- Paste one thing, the script, into Gemini Notebook and tap Generate
- Pictures
- Illustrations
- What it needs
- Any AI with scheduled tasks and email
- Reliability
- High
Version 2 - fully automatic
- What the AI does
- All of that, then makes the video in Gemini for you
- What you do
- Nothing
- Pictures
- Illustrations plus real photos the agent adds
- What it needs
- An AI agent that can control your web browser, a computer left on overnight, signed in to Gemini
- Reliability
- Good, but needs looking after: the Gemini screens change
How to build it
6 steps
Steps 1 to 3 take about 20 minutes, and the shortcut prompt can do most of them with you. Step 4 is your 2 minutes each morning.
Make the notebook 5 minutes
- Go to Gemini Notebook and create a new notebook. Call it something like "Our Daily Kids News".
- Leave it empty for now. Each morning's script is added to it as a new source.
- Bookmark it on the device your children watch on.
Brief it with the setup prompt 10 minutes
Paste the setup prompt into your AI assistant. It will interview you about your children and then write a "show playbook": the rules your show follows every day. Answer as fully as you like. The more it knows, the more the show feels like theirs.
Save the playbook where your assistant can read it every morning: a project, a saved document or a custom instruction, depending on your platform. Make a "Scripts" folder next to it too: each morning's script is saved there, so the next run can follow up yesterday's stories instead of repeating them.
Schedule the daily prompt 5 minutes
Create a scheduled task that runs every day at about 5am, and paste in the daily prompt. Make sure the task can search the web, read the playbook, save to the Scripts folder and email you.
Run it once by hand to check it works.
Each morning Version 1
About 2 minutes of tapping, then 10 to 30 minutes of waiting while the video makes itself. There is only one source to add: the script. The agent has already done the research and written every fact into it, so there are no links to hunt down.
- Open the email and copy the script.
- In your notebook, tap Add sources, then Copied text, and paste. Untick yesterday's script so only today's is selected.
- Tap Studio, then Video Overview. Choose the Explainer format and a style (ours: "modern editorial illustration for bright 7 year olds, like a quality children's newspaper; not babyish"). Paste the focus line from the email into "What should the video focus on?".
- Tap Generate and get on with breakfast.
- Watch it with them. That's the point.
Saturdays Optional - their favourite
On Saturdays the daily prompt writes a week-in-review script and a 10-question quiz on the week. Add both to the notebook. Make the video from the script, then use Studio's Quiz button on the quiz source, set to "Standard" length and "Easy", for a tap-to-answer quiz. Prizes are up to you.
Make it fully automatic Version 2 - optional
If your AI assistant can drive your browser (Claude in Chrome, for example), add the "Version 2" block at the end of the daily prompt. Leave the computer on and signed in to Gemini. Good to know:
- Gemini refuses some photos of real people. The video is still made, just without that photo.
- The Gemini screens change from time to time. Have the agent email you if it gets stuck, with the script attached, so you can finish it by hand.
- Always have a fallback, so something is there by 7am.
What makes it great
The ingredients
All of these are already built into the prompts. You just answer the setup questions.
Be clear what is and isn't appropriate
Decide up front how much real news your children get and what is off limits. The setup prompt suggests a sensible "never" list, and hard stories are told in four steps: what happened, why, what is right and wrong about it, and who is helping.
Teach before you tell
The first time a big idea comes up, like an election or a budget, the show stops and explains it using things from their own lives, like pocket money or a school council vote. It rotates through 30 or so big ideas about how society works, each at least once every 90 days.
Make it theirs
Their names, their teams, their pets, their neighbourhood. The playbook remembers it all, so a story about a 63-metre rocket gets measured in stacked Chihuahuas.
Real photos, not just drawings
The script marks where a real photograph should appear, so the news feels connected to the real world. Version 2 adds the photos for you.
A quiz keeps them listening
3 questions every day and 10 on a Saturday, with a small prize if you like. The quiz only asks about things the show actually told them.
Watch it with them
AI still makes the odd mistake. Watching together means you catch it, and talking it through is half the fun.
First names only
No surname, school, address or birthdays in anything that goes into the AI or the video.
The shortcut - optional
Let your AI build it with you
If your AI assistant can open web pages, paste this in. It reads this guide, interviews you, writes your playbook and sets up the daily task, so you can skip most of steps 2 and 3. If it can't open web pages, use the 2 prompts below instead.
I'd like to build a daily AI news show for my children, following this guide: https://www.digitalpeople.online/agent-builder/kids-news Please open and read the whole page first, including the setup prompt and the daily prompt on it. Then: 1. Run the setup prompt with me: interview me in short rounds and write our show playbook. 2. Save the playbook somewhere you can read it every morning, with a "Scripts" folder next to it for each day's script. 3. If you can create scheduled tasks, set up the daily prompt to run every day at about 5am, filled in with our details, and run it once now so I can see the first episode. If you can't, tell me exactly where to paste it and what to fill in. 4. Walk me through making the first video in Gemini Notebook, one step at a time. If you can't open web pages, tell me, and I'll paste the two prompts from the page instead.
Prompt 1 of 2 - use once
The setup prompt
Paste this into your AI assistant. It interviews you about your children, then writes your show playbook.
You are going to help me set up a daily news show for my children, made by AI. Each morning another AI task will research the news and write an 8-minute script for my children, which I will turn into a video in Gemini Notebook. Your job right now is to interview me and then write the "show playbook": the rules that daily task will follow every day.
Interview me in short rounds of 3 to 5 questions. Wait for my answers before moving on. Offer examples so I can answer quickly. Skip anything I say I don't want to answer.
Round 1 - The children
- First names only (please do not ask for surnames, school names, addresses or dates of birth - none of these should ever go into the show).
- Age and school year of each.
- Each child's interests: hobbies, sports and teams they follow, music, books, shows, games, characters, animals.
- Anything each is learning at school this term.
Round 2 - Their world
- The country or countries they belong to, and any family links abroad (for example "Mum is from New York, grandparents in New Jersey").
- The city or area they live in, and places they love to go (parks, museums, theatres).
- Pets, and family members who can be mentioned by first name.
- Where and how they will watch (tablet, laptop, phone; with a parent?).
Round 3 - What the show covers
- The mix you want: local, national and world news, science, nature, space, sport, AI and technology, things to do at the weekend.
- How much "grown-up" news: none, gentle, or the real big stories told at their level.
- Topics to avoid completely. Suggest a default "never" list: graphic violence, terror attack detail, crimes against children, sexual content, suicide, gore, death counts.
- Anything either child is anxious about, so the show can steer clear or handle it with extra care.
Round 4 - Values and tone
- What values the show should teach out loud. Suggest a default: be kind; peaceful disagreement (voting, debating, petitions, marching) is good, and violence, stealing and bullying are wrong whoever does it; facts are facts; fair elections; most people on every side are decent.
- Politics: suggest a default - explain policy arguments with one fair sentence for each side, never take sides between parties, and name extremes factually whichever side they are on.
- Tone: warm, funny, curious, never babyish. Any words, catchphrases or running jokes to include?
Round 5 - Format and delivery
- Show name, and the time it must be ready (for example 7am).
- Length (suggest about 8 minutes, around 1,300 to 1,500 words).
- Who gets the morning email (email addresses).
- Extras: a word of the day, a maths puzzle, a 3-question quiz, a "breakfast table question" to argue about, a pet's weird fact of the day, a Saturday week in review with a 10-question quiz and prizes.
- Spelling lists or school words to weave in?
Then write the playbook as one clear document with these sections:
1. Audience - each child, their interests, their world (first names only).
2. Editorial rules - the mix, tone, accuracy ("every fact from a named, reputable source checked that morning; if unsure, say we don't know yet"), privacy (first names only, never school, surname, address or birthdays).
3. Big news, toned down not tuned out - tell hard stories in four beats: what happened; why; what is right and wrong here; who is helping and what happens next, ending with why the children are safe. At most one hard story a day, never first or last. Pictures can show aftermath, clean-up and helpers with a line explaining them; never violence happening, injured or dead people, or frightened children.
4. Teach before you tell - the first time a big idea appears (election, government, tax, budget, court, company, protest, ceasefire, free press, bias), stop and explain it in 3 to 5 sentences using the children's own lives; afterwards a one-line reminder. Include a list of 30 or so big ideas about how society works, and aim to cover each at least once every 90 days, using the news as the hook.
5. The "never" list.
6. Running order - Hello (names, day, weather, teaser); The big story; Three stops on the map (home, another country they belong to, the rest of the world or space); How the world works (one explainer, rotating: politics, money, science and nature, space or history, a question the children asked); Robot corner (one AI item: what it can do and one thing it cannot); each child's pick (alternate who goes first); Good news and goodbye (quiz, breakfast table question, the pet's weird fact). Weekend things to do on Thursdays and Fridays. Saturday: week in review plus a 10-question quiz on things they were actually told that week.
7. Pictures - mark "Picture:" under each segment, and "REAL PHOTO of ..." where a real photograph should appear (4 to 6 a day: real people, places and things).
8. The morning email - what goes in it.
9. A log of decisions and feedback, to add to over time.
Finish by telling me in two lines what to do next: save the playbook where my daily task can read it, make a "Scripts" folder next to it, and paste in the daily prompt.
The button copies the exact text, with plain quotes and no formatting.
Prompt 2 of 2 - runs every morning
The daily prompt
Paste this into a scheduled task that runs at about 5am. Fill in the bits in [square brackets]. For Version 1, set the inbox time about an hour before you want to watch, so the video has time to make itself. For Version 2, keep the last block; for Version 1, delete it.
Make today's episode of my children's daily news show, following the show playbook exactly. It must be in my inbox by [7am] [your time zone] every day, including weekends and holidays. I am not watching this run, so do not ask questions: make the sensible call and say what you decided at the end.
1. READ FIRST
- The show playbook. It is the authority on the children, the rules, the "never" list and the running order.
- The last two scripts in the Scripts folder, so you do not repeat a story, you follow up stories already started ("remember yesterday's rocket? It launched!"), and you keep the same voice and layout.
- On Saturdays, read every script from the past week instead.
2. RESEARCH (today's news, today's sources)
- Search the web for this morning's news. Favour careful, mainstream sources: for example the BBC, Reuters, AP, NPR and quality children's news (BBC Newsround, First News, The Week Junior, Time for Kids), plus NASA and space news, zoos and museums, and local listings for things to do.
- Check the front pages: if one story is leading everywhere and touches the children's world, it belongs in the show, told the playbook's way.
- Get today's local weather.
- Every fact in the script must come from a named, reputable source you opened this morning. Nothing invented to fill a slot. If something is uncertain, leave it out or say "we don't know yet".
3. WRITE THE SCRIPT
- One document, titled "[Show name] - [Weekday] [date]".
- Start with this instruction block, word for word: "This is the complete script for today's children's news show. The audience is [first names and ages]. A parent watches with them. Tell the stories in this order, in this friendly voice, using these facts only. Speak to the children by name. Use short sentences. Wherever this script says REAL PHOTO, show that real photograph if it is in the sources; otherwise illustrate it. Never show anything frightening."
- Follow the playbook's running order. About 1,300 to 1,500 words (8 minutes).
- Short sentences. Every big number made concrete ("enough people to fill a football stadium six times"). One word of the day. A maths puzzle with the answer at the end.
- Teach a few clear, checkable facts each day (a name, a number, a place, what a word means), because Saturday's quiz is drawn from them.
- How the world works: pick one big idea from the playbook's list. Use today's news if it touches one; otherwise choose the idea that has waited longest. First time: a 3 to 5 sentence explanation from the children's own lives.
- Under each segment add "Picture:" directions, and "REAL PHOTO of ..." for 4 to 6 real people, places or things.
- Privacy: first names and pets only. No surname, school name, address or birthdays anywhere.
- End with a 3-question quiz (with answers in brackets), a breakfast table question that gives each child a side to argue, and the pet's weird fact.
- Save the finished script in the Scripts folder, named "[date] - [Show name]", so tomorrow's run can read it.
4. SAFETY PASS
Check the script against the playbook's "never" list, the four-beats rule for hard stories, the picture rules and the fairness rules (one fair sentence for each side of a policy argument, no party sides). Fix anything that fails.
5. SATURDAYS INSTEAD
Write a week-in-review script (about 10 to 11 minutes) that retells the week's best stories, explainers, picks and words, plus one fresh story from this morning. Then write a 10-question quiz on things the children were actually told this week: spread across the days and segments, at least one AI item, at least one number for the maths fan, one or two words of the day, nothing about violence or casualties. Three answer choices each, read-aloud simple, with an answer key. Every quiz answer must be stated plainly in the review script: check each one.
6. EMAIL ME
Send one email to [email addresses]. Subject: "[Show name] is ready - [Weekday] [date]".
Include, in this order:
- The script, ready to copy (or as an attachment).
- The line to paste into Gemini's "What should the video focus on?" box: "Use only today's script source. Present it as a daily news show for [names and ages], one warm narrator, speaking to them by name. Follow the script's running order and facts exactly, add no other stories or facts, and keep every segment, including the quiz. Show each REAL PHOTO at the point the script names it. Aim for about 8 minutes."
- The running order as a short list.
- The quiz answers and the maths puzzle answer.
- A one-line parent heads-up for any hard story: which story, how it was told, and one line I can use if they ask more.
- Links to any real video clips worth watching together (a goal, a launch), since the video cannot include them.
- On Saturdays: the quiz, with a "Parents only - answer key".
7. FINISH
Reply with a short summary: the stories you chose and their sources, the big idea you taught, and anything you left out and why.
[VERSION 2 ONLY - add this block if your AI can control your browser]
8. MAKE THE VIDEO
Open my Gemini Notebook at [notebook link]. Add today's script as a source (and the real photos as image sources, using only freely licensed images such as those on Wikimedia Commons, named "REAL PHOTO - <what it shows>"). Select only today's sources, in the Sources panel and in the video dialog's own source picker. Open Studio, then Video Overview: Explainer format, my usual style, and the focus line above. Generate. When it has finished, rename it "[date] - [Show name]" and put the notebook link in the email as "Watch today's episode". If anything fails or it is not ready by [6.50am], send the email anyway with the script, and say plainly what happened.
The button copies the exact text, with plain quotes and no formatting.
Built by Ben Legg (Digital People) for Pippa and Jasper. If you build one for your children, I'd love to hear what they make of it.
The series
More agents worth building
This is one of a series of free guides to small, useful agents: the playbook written once, the agent doing the daily work, a human in the loop. It's the same pattern we use to build agents at Digital People. One page per agent, each with the prompts you need.
- No. 1 - An email agent that writes like youRead it
- No. 2 - A daily news show for your childrenYou are here
- No. 3 - Calendar managementComing soon
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Insights and advisory services from battlefield-tested operator and ex-COO of Google Europe, Ben Legg.
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