Ello Introduces AI-Powered Story Creation Feature for Kids

Ello Launches Storytime, New Version of AI Reading App Where Kids Create Their Own Stories

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ello, developer of the world's most advanced AI reading app, just released a new feature where children can create their own books. Ello is a fully digital AI reading companion that harnesses proprietary, industry-leading child speech technology to democratize personalized reading instruction at scale. Leveraging the world's largest child speech data set and the largest library of decodable children's books, Ello uses advancements in artificial intelligence technology to support parents with struggling readers for a small fraction of what a reading tutor would cost. Ello listens to a child read and provides motivation and coaching alongside a progression of phonics lessons and decodable books which span reading levels from Kindergarten through 3rd Grade. Now, with the new "Ello Storytime" feature, kids can create their own books by picking their favorite settings, characters, and plots. Ello takes these choices and creates a story with practice reading words tailored to the child's level. During the interactive "Storytime" experience, the child practices new vocabulary and phonics skills out loud while Ello reads the personalized story. Before launching, Ello's engineering team spent months testing Storytime for safety. "AI-generated content presents immense opportunities for children to have personalized, engaging experiences, but it also comes with risks," commented Catalin Voss, co-founder and CTO of Ello, who led the technical development of Storytime. "We have conducted extensive safety tests and human reviews on thousands of books and images generated using AI. While this is of course an ambitious step, we have guardrails in place to make sure that Storytime will be safe and appropriate for children - including giving children a predetermined set of story options, instead of letting them freestyle." Unlike other Generative AI tools for children to write stories, Storytime books fit into a scope and sequence of Science of Reading phonics instruction. For example-Angela, in first grade, is practicing her "ch" sound with Ello this week. She asks Ello to create a story about a cat making friends at school. Ello will write this story for Angela, strategically place in words like "chair" and "cheer," and prompt Angela to practice reading those words out loud on the page. "We are so excited to bring our newest version of Ello to families," said Dr. Elizabeth Adams, Co-founder and CXO of Ello. "Giving kids some control over the content they are reading helps to support the child's motivation to read by reflecting their interests and lives. Our GenAI technology makes it possible to create these books quickly, and we are now able to build books that combine the important phonics skills kids need to become strong readers with natural language text that gives them access to more advanced vocabulary and storylines. In Ello Storytime, kids can practice new words out loud which are relevant to that week's phonics lesson, and also listen to Ello read to them, much the way they would with a 1:1 reading coach." About the Ello Reading App Ello is powered by Adaptive Learn, its state-of-the-art AI system that understands, adapts and responds to a child just as a teacher or reading coach would, using principles backed by the Science of Reading to create a fun and educational journey for children in grades K-3. For $14.99/month, the Ello subscription app offers families access to reading coaching which often costs hundreds of dollars-and families who receive government assistance can qualify for a discounted price of $2.99/month. The Ello app works on iPhones and iPads running iOS 14 and newer. Outside of the subscription app, Ello has made its library of decodable children's books available online for free, and has also partnered with low-income schools to offer the subscription for free. About Ello Ello is helping to solve childhood illiteracy by scaling 1:1 instruction to maximize the learning potential of all children, regardless of resources. Its first product is the world's most advanced reading companion, powered by proprietary speech recognition and generative AI. It listens, understands, and engages with children to teach them critical reading skills as they read out loud. To date, over 700K children's books have been read on the Ello platform, which serves tens of thousands of families with more than 1,000 decodable books available in the Ello library. Ello is founded by a team of experts in education, childhood development and artificial intelligence, and backed by investors including Y Combinator, Goodwater, Project A and Homebrew. Learn more at https://ello.com. Kerry Metzdorf Big Swing Communications 978-463-2575 kerry@big-swing.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/79585ca2-ed4e-493a-aa7f-5e187536b505 Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

AI reading coach startup Ello now lets kids create their own stories

Ello, the AI reading companion that aims to support kids struggling to read, launched a new product on Monday that allows kids to participate in the story-creation process. Called "Storytime," the new AI-powered feature helps kids generate personalized stories by picking from a selection of settings, characters, and plots. For instance, a story about a hamster named Greg who performed in a talent show in outer space. Kids can select from dozens of prompts, resulting in thousands of combinations. Like Ello's regular reading offering, the AI companion -- a bright blue, friendly elephant -- listens to the child read aloud and evaluates their speech to correct mispronunciations and missed words. If kids are unsure how to pronounce a certain word, they can tap on the question mark icon for extra help. Storytime offers two reading options: one mode where Ello and the reader take turns and another, easier mode for younger readers where Ello does most of the reading. AI-assisted story creation for kids isn't a new concept. In 2022, Amazon introduced its own AI tool that generates animated stories for kids based on various themes and locations, such as underwater adventures or enchanted forests. Other startups, like Scarlet Panda and Story Spark, have also joined in on this trend. However, Ello believes its Storytime offering stands apart due to its proprietary, advanced AI system that adapts to a child's responses, teaching critical reading skills using phonics-based strategies. The company claims its technology outperforms OpenAI's Whisper and Google Cloud's speech API. In addition, the Storytime experience is tailored to the user's reading level as well as the weekly lesson. For example, if Ello is helping a first-grader practice their "ch" sound that week, the AI creates a story that strategically includes the words "chair" and "cheer." According to Ello, its engineering team implemented safety measures to ensure that the stories are suitable for children. The company spent several months testing the product with teachers, children, and reading specialists. The initial version only permits children to choose from a predetermined set of story options. However, the company envisions a future iteration where children will have even more involvement in the process. "If a teacher creates an open story with a child, they provide the [building blocks] through interactive dialog. So, I imagine it would look quite similar to that," Catalin Voss, co-founder and CTO of Ello, told TechCrunch. "Kids prefer some guardrails at some level. It's the blank paper problem. You ask a five-year-old, 'What do you want the story to be about?' And they kind of get overwhelmed." In addition to Storytime, the company also launched its iOS app a few months ago, expanding the reach of its AI reading coach to even more users. It was previously limited to tablets, including iPads, Android tablets, and Amazon. With over 700,000 books read and tens of thousands of families served, Ello is priced at $14.99/month. Meanwhile, families receiving government assistance can access it for just $2.99/month. Ello also partners with low-income schools to offer the subscription at no additional cost. Additionally, Ello recently made its library of decodable children's books online for free.