Serial entrepreneurs Renee Dua and Nick Desai have launched another app.
They created SmartDreams, which uses generative AI to enable children to create their own bedtime stories. They were inspired to create it as parents themselves.
"The idea for SmartDreams was born out of those precious moments with our daughter before bedtime,” Dua said in a press release. “One night at bedtime she asked me to tell her a story about a bear, a forest and a pizza, and inspiration struck. As I struggled to bring those elements to life in a story that could both entertain and include her in the process, I knew that other parents who cherish storytime with their children at bedtime might love turning their children’s minds into a co-pilot for the nighttime ritual.”
Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can generate text, images or other media in response to prompts. ChatGPT is one of the most popular examples.
How SmartDreams works
SmartDreams's free app is designed for kids ages 3 and up.When the app launches, a set of animals, heroes, sidekicks, locations and foods are shown as options to populate the stories.
For now, all the stories are feel-good, Desai told L.A. Inno, so no mean wolves like in Little Red Riding Hood. Each story generated is about 400 to 800 words, the length of a typical bedtime story. The AI creates vivid illustrations to accompany the text, and stories can be saved for future use.
SmartDreams plans to incorporate a narrator's voice soon, Desai said.
For parents who may be concerned about safety with the app, all information, ideas and creations are protected via the platform’s secure interface, the company said. The app requires parent permission to operate.
SmartDreams is currently available through the Apple app store.
Previous endeavors
Previously, the duo co-founded Heal, which provides medical house calls to the elderly, and Renee, a personal digital health concierge that enables seniors and polychronic patients to take care of a variety of medical tasks in one place.
No matter how many apps this duo creates, they still make time for bedtime stories. And with SmartDreams, their kids can see AI in action.
"There are few things in this life that are more rewarding than seeing my child's imagination come to life," Desai said. "We're always teaching our kids to use any new technology for the greater good.”
Concerns about generative AI
There have been a variety of concerns about AI in general, including privacy, legal and labor issues.
The nonprofit Future of Life Institute published an open letter in March calling for a six-month moratorium on developing any kind of AI that’s “more powerful than GPT-4,” OpenAI’s most advanced model.
OpenAI is the company that released ChatGPT last year. And it’s the company that Microsoft has been investing heavily in. Earlier this year, the two companies signed a multi-year agreement reportedly worth up to $10 billion, establishing the tech giant as OpenAI’s continual exclusive cloud services provider.
