Alexa on Echo Show Devices Can Now Create Animated Stories For Kids

Amazon announced today a new “Create with Alexa” feature on its Echo Show devices. The new Alexa-powered capability is capable of creating short animated stories that kids and parents can use in place of traditional bedtime stories.

“Create with Alexa uses advances in conversational and generative artificial intelligence (AI) to empower young storytellers to build unique stories with a narrative arc, colorful graphics, and fun, complementary background music. The animated stories then come to life on the screen of your Echo Show devices,” the company explained in the announcement.

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To create an animated story from scratch, Amazon Echo users just need to say “Alexa, make a story” to get started. The on-screen experience will then let kids and parents co-create an animated story with unique characters, settings, and other storytelling aspects. For each scene, Amazon’s Echo Show devices will use AI to create custom illustrations, background music, and sound effects.

An Amazon Echo Show with various Create with Alexa screens.

Currently, Alexa is only capable of creating a “five- to 10-line story” that’s narrated across five scenes. “Even if the child chooses the same prompts in the future, the story will be different each time,” Amazon explained.

Animated stories created on Echo Show devices can be saved on the device’s personal media gallery, and Amazon is already planning to add sharing support. If you’re wondering how Amazon has made sure that Alexa won’t be telling obscene stories to your kids, Eshan Bhatnagar, Head of Product, Alexa AI explained that a lot of effort went into making Create with Alexa a family-friendly feature.

“From the get-go, we used carefully curated data sources to train AI models,” he said. “We have multiple guardrails such as content filtering and curated prompts to ensure this experience is both delightful and safe,” he added.

Create with Alexa is launching on Amazon Echo Show devices in the US today, and English is currently the only supported language. The feature also requires verifiable parental consent before it can be enabled on supported devices.

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