Meta has debuted StoryKit, an AI platform that places children into personalized stories, requiring users to provide information about their offspring, including names and appearances. Google has released a similar feature for Google Home devices called Interactive Storytime, which allows families to co-create custom adventures, interrupt narratives to change plots mid-scene, or remix classic fairy tales in real-time. The article notes that Amazon is not exempt from such offerings, referencing Amazon’s Alexa engaging in generative AI storytelling in 2023. OpenAI head Sam Altman suggested using AI to communicate more effectively with one’s kids, a proposal the article criticizes as tone-deaf. The piece argues that customized bedtime stories have existed for ages, historically relying on human intelligence and imagination, and that inventing stories has characterized the human species for all of recorded history. The author contends that outsourcing storytelling to a computer is a bad idea, as it removes a critical human function, though comprehensive studies on the subject are not yet available.