It's not just about the words. It's the physical book, read and emoted by you, to them, while you are holding them, feeling their warmth, hearing their breath soften as they grow sleepy and fall asleep. It's a thing that you can read again and again, and even something they may remember or talk about with friends in the future. Consider whether it's a good idea to replace Goodnight Moon or Bear Snores On (particularly good to sing or chant) with something like this. I can see this being a viable option for people who can't afford physical children's books, sort of like how I see screen controls as a viable option for people who can't afford tactile, mechanical controls. The perception is wrong about this stuff. It's not better, it's not putting your energy where it is best spent, and frankly I don't trust a Young Lady's Illustrative Primer to raise my kids even for a second.
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#32I can't articulate why but AI generated images like this are so off putting. I am actively trying to avoid my toddler from seeing stuff like this.
We have many books that look almost like some of the titles. But it is as you say. It's like the machine replicated some superficial things about the style but something vivid is lacking. LLMs cannot "see" (it is not "feature"?) it and therefore not replicate it.
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#33I think this is the most an HN post has ever bummed me out, congratulations I guess.
On the other hand, you get these comments. “Always look for the helpers.”
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#34It's not just about the words. It's the physical book, read and emoted by you, to them, while you are holding them, feeling their warmth, hearing their breath soften as they grow sleepy and fall asleep. It's a thing that you can read again and again, and even something they may remember or talk about with friends in the future. Consider whether it's a good idea to replace Goodnight Moon or Bear Snores On (particularl…
> I can see this being a viable option for people who can't afford physical children's books
Maybe if you live in a country that doesn't have functioning public libraries.
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#35I’m sure I’ll get flak for this but I’m sorry we can argue about AI all day and there’s a lot of stuff that’s being built and is genuinely depressing but this takes the cake. There’s few memories I cherish more of childhood than being read The Hobbit at the age of your children. The best part was my dad would slip in nonsense sentences when it seemed like I was drifting off. “And then Roxolotl hops out and grabs the…
I wholeheartedly agree. I pity any kid whose parents use this product. The AI use is irrelevant; this is just shameful.
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#36I’m sure I’ll get flak for this but I’m sorry we can argue about AI all day and there’s a lot of stuff that’s being built and is genuinely depressing but this takes the cake. There’s few memories I cherish more of childhood than being read The Hobbit at the age of your children. The best part was my dad would slip in nonsense sentences when it seemed like I was drifting off. “And then Roxolotl hops out and grabs the…
Seriously. My son and I are about 3/4ths through Fellowship of the Ring after he loved The Hobbit. We’ve read all of Narnia, Wildwood, and many other (long!) books and book series together. Either his mom or I have read to him very nearly every single day of his life. I know he loves it, and it has made him love reading on his own too.
I have never once felt there weren’t enough good stories - written by humans - out there for us. Quite the opposite: there are more than we could ever get through in a hundred lifetimes. There’s no way an LLM can outdo Tolkien.
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#37As the father of a 2- and 4-year-old, this project is repulsive. > Like many parents, I found that standard bedtime stories didn't always capture their unique imagination. So, I built Lyra Kids ( https://lyra.kids ) to turn our nightly ritual into something more magical. We have the standard template product pitch here (“Unlike our competitors, our product does XYZ”) but turned against _the entirety of children’s lit…
Hell, yeah. Children's Literature is no joke. It is a branch of literature as old as time, and has seen no shortage of depth or variety.
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#38Why I built it: I wanted a safe, ad-free environment where my kids could see themselves as the heroes of their own adventures.
This is what play is for. I don't think trying to maximize engagement by training them to see themselves at the center of events is a recipe for healthy mental development. If you're not finding that standard bedtime stories are sufficiently engaging...try different ones? It's not like there's a shortage of children's books, maybe your kids are in the mood for more advanced reading material.
one of the key benefits of reading non-personalized stories is developing an ability to appreciate and mentally model things that are happening to other people, albeit fictional ones. The reader not being in control of the story (and indeed feeling powerless to change the outcome) means they're forced to engage with the possibility of things not turning out as desired.
If you want to help them capture their unique imagination, buy them a tape recorder. Writing and drawing their own books at that age is a tall order because it's such a time-consuming process, but chattering isn't a problem, and they'll probably figure out how to iterate on things by themselves.
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#39Honest feedback? Don’t have it replace storytelling, don’t replace imagination, don’t have it add structure, don’t remove the parts that let them grow and explore their own universe. Maybe, at best, let it just create a visual augmentation to their own special worlds, but still, just get them crayons and let them dirty the walls.
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#40I want to scream.