Ello, the AI reading companion designed to help children struggling with reading difficulties, introduced a new product on Monday that encourages kids to engage in the creation of stories.
Dubbed “Storytime,” this innovative AI-powered feature enables children to craft personalized stories by selecting from a variety of settings, characters, and plots. For example, a story about a hamster named Greg who competes in a talent show in outer space.
Children have the option to choose from numerous prompts, resulting in endless combinations of stories.
Similar to Ello’s conventional reading assistance, the AI companion — a friendly, bright blue elephant — listens to the child reading out loud and assesses their speech for correcting mispronunciations and missed words. If children encounter difficulty in pronouncing a word, they can click on the question mark icon for assistance.
Storytime provides two reading modes: one where Ello and the reader take turns, and another simpler mode suitable for younger readers where Ello takes on most of the reading.
The concept of AI-assisted story creation for children is not new. In 2022, Amazon introduced an AI tool that generates animated stories for children based on different themes and locations. Companies like Scarlet Panda and Story Spark have also ventured into this space.
However, Ello believes its Storytime feature is unique due to its advanced AI system that adapts to a child’s responses and teaches essential reading skills using phonetics-based strategies. The company claims its technology surpasses the capabilities of OpenAI’s Whisper and Google Cloud’s speech API.
Moreover, the Storytime experience is tailored to the user’s reading level and weekly lesson plan. Ello ensures that the stories are child-friendly by implementing safety measures and conducting extensive testing with teachers, children, and reading specialists.
In addition to Storytime, Ello recently launched its iOS app, expanding its AI reading coach’s accessibility across more devices. 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 per month. Families eligible for government assistance can access it for just $2.99 per month. Ello also collaborates with low-income schools to offer the subscription at no extra cost.
Additionally, Ello has made its library of children’s books available online for free.
