Every person who would like to should be able to have their life story preserved. Dan Jung founded Storia to improve aging parents' connection to their families. I supported technically and built tools to extract information from recorded interviews with seniors and weave this into composable books that were then given to the family.
“Tell me about the kitchen you grew up in…”
Oh, your uncle, he was, like, was trouble.
Always getting into some kind of mess, Famous for some kind of mischief,
but everybodyeveryone loved him anyway, you know?
“Tell me about the kitchen you grew up in…”
There are many blockers when it comes to writing down your life story. Story Weaver begins the process with an approachable conversation. Family members and the elderly subject participate in an warm, relaxed interview where their comfort is prioritized, and their words are recorded.
An audio transcript from a single session can be over an hour long. This gets broken down into conversation threads. Threads from multiple days of interviews are combined. Then those conversation threads are sorted into common topics arranged around a book outline.
Oh, your uncle, he was, like, was trouble.
Always getting into some kind of mess, Famous for some kind of mischief,
but everybodyeveryone loved him anyway, you know?
Light edits are applied via AI. A side-by-side diff view shows the transcript next to the polished page so that a reviewer can revert unhelpful changes.
The product isn't meant to replace human writing, but it serves as a starting point. A final edit by professional writers and the storyteller ensures the story is authentic and complete.
Using AI to replace human writing is controversial. Not only do audiences worry about errors and reduced quality of their reading, but writers may lose touch of their own voice and weaken their reflective muscles by outsourcing to AI.
It's important to delineate which parts of the writing process are tedious and uncreative (these can be automated) from those which utilize human creativity and judgment (these people may choose to handle themselves).
There are also AI tools that may make the kind of help professional writers receive more accessible. For example, not everyone can have a professional ghostwriter come and interview them like Prince Harry did. AI can assist in organizing notes, suggesting edits, and providing inspiration, but the human touch on the final book remains irreplaceable.
Thinking…