I built a free site that puts a new illustrated bedtime story up every night. Would this survive YOUR bedtime?

[DailyStoryItay]

Hello MN. Fee paid, first time here.

I'm Itay. I left my tech job a while back and now build free kids' games and stories on my own. For the past year my evenings have gone into dailybedtimestory.com. It's a free website. No app, no sign-up, no ads. Every night there's one new short story with pictures, gentle narration and a little song at the end. You open it at bedtime and it takes about 5 minutes.

To be straight about how it's made: I use AI tools to create the stories and pictures. That's what lets one person publish a new story every day for free. I know a lot of parents are sick of AI content, and that's partly why I'm here. If it doesn't feel warm enough for bedtime, I'd rather find out now than after another year of building.

Money side: there's nothing to buy. No premium tier, no card details, nothing hidden.

If you're willing to try it at bedtime once or twice this week, I'd love to know:

1. Did your kids ask for it again the next night? This is the only thing I really care about.
2. What made you wince? Story, pictures, voice, anything. Be blunt.
3. Could you see it becoming part of your actual bedtime routine, or is it a "nice once" thing?

Everyone who comes back and answers by Sunday goes into a draw for a £25 Amazon voucher (I'll PM the winner).

The site: dailybedtimestory.com

I'll read and reply to everything myself. Be as brutal as you like.

Bumping once again, try it and let me know if you have any feedback

I think most people would rather support human authors and illustrators who've worked for years on their craft. The whole thing sounds terrible.

I watched Cat Spa Day, Princess Tower Library and Birman Royal Throne. It seemed to glitch between scenes, as it repeated the previous line and at the end it repeated a word. Also my phone screen went off and the audio stopped, so I had to keep poking my screen to keep it playing.

The voice is too flat imo - I would want an expressive narrator. I use the Calm app and Cbeebies bedtime stories so we're used to enthusiastic actors, so I'm afraid the AI voice wouldn't work for my family.

Completely agree.

I’m sorry, but I’d prefer to read from, or have my children read from real books.

Also, in my experience, children don’t want a new story every day. They want the same story over and over and over again!

It’s goes against my every instinct
it’s on a screen
It is AI

reading a physical book is critically important
touch and engagement is different with that than a screen

How on Earth did MN come to be the first port of call for people claiming disingenuously saying that "I've just made an App" ..

what made you wince? Story, pictures, voice, anything. Be blunt.

Everything, I would never use this, the awful AI voice over, the fact the text change doesnt keep up with the AI voice and the font change makes it unreadable. And the stories are just absolute AI word vomit.

Why are there so many posts lately about people trying to launch completely pointless apps or websites?
There are a gazillion children's books available.
The world doesn't need a website with AI stories.

The stories aren't very good and the voice is awful.

I feel its the weird combo of "hustle culture" podcast bros being like go make a business/app, get a side hustle, but the effort entry is now on the floor. So people are shitting out half-baked ideas with zero effort, that no one needs or wants, no real passion or energy put into the idea, because AI can do it all.

The stories are pants op I'm sorry. The clouds looked like risen bread? The AI voice is also horrid. I'd much rather read myself or put some kind of radio drama with actual voice acting and story.

Given that every single one of them seems to be AI generated, I’d hazard that one of the ChatGPT-type apps is telling would-be app creators to come on here and hassle us all with this AI junk.
OP you claim it needs to be AI to produce a story a day. I used to be a professional writer. I was very successful and well-reviewed. I can absolutely knock out a children’s bedtime story in a day. Most days I come up with several off the top of my head for my own kids. People like you with your AI garbage have flooded and destroyed the writing industry so much that, since last year, I’ve had to take a paid job in a different industry so I could pay my mortgage.
Thanks.

a) No-one wants their kids to look at screens before bed. That's one of the positives of reading a book together. No blue light, no 'just click that', no looking at the black box of unlimited brainrot.
There are billions of kids' books that have been written with intentionality and illustrated by a person. We don't need countless shitty versions generated just to be looked at on a screen.

b) AI stories are usually dull with nothing really happening. I tried to generate one for my kid that involved him and his favourite TV character. It was all about the build-up to the adventures, then 'they had adventures' then home again remembering all the great adventures. No substance. This one was similarly nothingy.

c) the narration was awful. There are countless audiobooks out there or people reading books aloud on YouTube if you really just want to leave your kid with a voice from a screen.

d) using AI has a real-world cost in terms of energy and/or water. Let's not accelerate the journey to environmental chaos any more than we have to.

e) it's teaching kids to accept any old will-this-do it-has-bright-colours slop as something to use their limited time and attention on.
I think in a way this is the worst. Absolutely no respect or care for what might actually benefit kids - just keep them distracted no matter how low-value it is.

and f) how on earth do we know there's not going to be a Princess Fluffy Gets An Abortion story that's just chucked in there? Is someone quality-checking the stories? Is this just for content or for actual quality?

Allowing screens immediately before bedtime is a terrible idea.

I can't actually think of one reason why any parent would want this.

Unless it's your mum wanting to support her child?

Well put. Good for you.

I used to make up a bedtime story on the fly and tell it to dc every night. Literally invented it as it went along, and tailored it to dc's day whether good, bad or indifferent, and it always had a resolution with a 'happy ever after' ending.

AI cartoons at bedtime? Bugger me backwards with a bent banana. Hell would have to freeze over first.

I haven’t looked at it so I won’t comment on the content, and my children are far too old for bedtime stories now, but I find this really sad. My memories of sharing books with my children at bedtime are amongst my favourite memories. This sort of thing will surely encourage parents to just leave the child with the screen while they get a few jobs done or get distracted by their own screen. But even if the parent sits with the child to watch/listen to the story, it’s really not the same as sharing a book.

It’s the whole process of looking at the bookshelf together, picking books out and deciding which one to read. Sitting close together as you turn the pages and point at and discuss the pictures. Sometimes turning back a few pages to check something that happened earlier in the story. Modelling running your finger along the line of text and pointing out individual words etc. It’s interactive between the child and parent in a way that I just can’t see being replicated by something like this.

And as many others have said, I would much rather my money went to authors and illustrators who use their wonderful imagination and creativity to create magic for children.

Even assuming nothing wholly inappropriate, children still have different personal preferences, and so parents will choose particular stories that they think their little ones will enjoy.

They're very likely to ask for another story about a cat, or a princess, or space or whatever - and then another for several nights in a run; or indeed the exact same one that they know and love.

What motivated you to do this, OP? If it isn't making you money - and it's not like there aren't already tens of thousands of books, audiobooks, online stories out there already?

@ParsleySageToiletDuckAndBinBags Not forgetting that most parents have a distinct preference for the type of stories they want their children exposed to at an early age, and would want to know what the story is about before letting it loose on their kids.

Just yuck. I actually find this repulsive, and so sad. No way in hell would I ever choose this for my kids. The whole point of bedtime stories is the human connection -- with the parent or carer who is reading them, and with the characters, settings and scenarios created by the interaction between the imagination of the child and the imagination of the (human) author and illustrator. I really hope there is no market for this.

I am a grandparent, after a story from a real book my granddaughter often falls asleep listening to stories on her yoto or on CBBC sounds. But they are real stories written and read by real people and it doesn't include looking at a screen . I don't think watching an AI bedtime story on a screen is good for children when there are much better alternatives