Right so DS's school recommended this reading app called StoryZoo and I had a proper look this morning and I cannot believe what I'm seeing.
The books are FULL of unrendered code. Like literally the text says "## A World of Many Roles". Thats a programming symbol that someone forgot to remove. Theres also a chapter about Ancient Greece where the heading says "Ancient Athensathens." ATHENSATHENS. The same page has markdown symbols ("Welcome to Ancient Athens!") which look like they've been copied straight out of ChatGPT. It looks AI generated and it doesn't look like it's been proofread very well.
The images are a disaster. Where do I start.
The Union Jack is wrong. The Scottish saltire is supposed to be offset and it isn't. A flag that literally every British child is taught to recognise, in a book about the UK, and they couldn't be bothered to check it or use a real photo.
The White Tower in the Tower of London looks roughly right but the buildings around it are complete fantasy. Again, THIS IS A NONFICTION BOOK. Stock photos of the actual Tower of London exist. They are not expensive. Getty Images will sort you out for a few quid. There is no excuse.
The basketball book has two players who appear to share three legs between them. I had to look twice. Classic AI image generation failure and again, nobody checked.
The Mayan history books are illustrated with what appear to be AI generated images of indigenous people in generic "tribal" dress. This is just AI grabbing whatever it associates with "ancient tribal people."
Schools are recommending this and I've emailed the teacher but wanted to flag here incase other peoples DC are using it.
AIBU to think this is genuinely not okay for children's education??