This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Max Fricke, founder of HuggleTales. It has been edited for length and clarity.
My 3-year-old son loves listening to stories I've made up for him. So when I travel, which I do frequently for work, we both miss out on our bedtime routine of creating stories.
I was on a monthlong trip when I had an idea: what if I could create an AI that could replicate my voice and tell my son the stories he loved so much?
I'm creative, but like many parents, I am also tired. On that trip, I was frustrated: my Wifi connection wasn't great, and my stories just weren't resonating with my son the way they usually did, so I had started using AI to generate story ideas. It was fun, and I was able to create stories that helped my son process his day. I realized there was a lot of potential there.
My son was already used to listening to audio stories #
My son already enjoyed using the Toniebox, a child-focused speaker. The speaker allows kids to place a figurine on top of the box, and the selected figurine tells a specific story. My son really liked having the autonomy to choose what story he listened to.
Our Toniebox let me record my voice for our son, so he could choose to play that particular story. This tool allowed my son to hear my voice while I wasn't available, but it didn't allow us to create the fluid, engaging stories he was used to hearing at bedtime.
I envisioned a product that would allow him to ask for a story, say about butterflies and dragons. Then, he could hear the story immediately, in my voice, even when I wasn't available.
I vibe-coded an app, and spent hours replicating my voice #
I'm not a coder, but I downloaded Basecamp, which let me vibe-code an AI product. I experimented with creating prompts that produced more creative stories with ChatGPT and Gemini.
Cloning my voice was the hardest part. Even that term — cloning — sounds creepy to lots of people. When my son first heard my AI-generated voice, he was skeptical because it didn't sound exactly like me. But as I refined the model, he didn't notice the difference between my voice recordings and the AI-produced voice.
Today, the voice sounds exactly like me, 90% of the time. That's enough for my son to enjoy listening to it almost as much as he enjoys hearing my stories in person.
My son benefits the most from the AI storytelling #
I don't want HuggleTales — the app that I've developed — to replace the emotional connection of a phone call or FaceTime. I still tell my son stories over the phone or in person. However, now we have another tool: when he wants to hear my voice, he can use the app.
It's also helpful when I'm tired. We've all struggled to come up with a story at the end of a long day. Sometimes, my son and I will give the app a prompt, and lie together to listen to a story told in my voice. That might be odd to some, but for me it's just another way to connect with my son.
Ultimately, all the work I've put into this app is for my son. He's the one who benefits. When I'm at work, I still miss him, but now he can get an emotional hug from me, even when I'm not around.