Google Gemini Now Lets You Create AI-Generated Bedtime Stories with Illustrations

Google has introduced a new feature within its Gemini AI chatbot that allows users to create illustrated bedtime stories with just a simple description. Called “Storybook,” the tool generates 10-page stories, each featuring a short narrative paragraph that Gemini can read aloud, paired with a custom illustration. Users can personalize their stories by specifying art styles—such as claymation, anime, or comic book—giving the tales a unique visual flair. The feature also lets users upload photos or drawings for Gemini to reference. For example, you can upload a child’s sketch and ask the AI to turn it into a story. I tested the tool by requesting a story about a catfish trying to make friends in a new aquarium. While the overall structure followed a typical children’s story arc, the plot—centered around fish attempting to move a marble—felt underdeveloped and predictable. The illustrations were mostly on point, but some raised eyebrows. One image showed a fish with a human arm, while another turned a bowl of spaghetti sauce into a cartoon crime scene. In a different story, an AI-generated image of a mother and son watching TV placed the television screen on the wrong side of the room. Even Google’s own promotional video for the feature included a glitch: a woman building a spaceship is shown tapping a wrench and some unidentified tool, making “tap, tap, tap” sounds, though the tool appears unclear and oddly shaped. Despite these visual inconsistencies, the storylines themselves were generally coherent, and no major hallucinations or narrative breakdowns were apparent in most of the stories I generated. However, when I uploaded a simple cartoon drawing of a cat I made, Gemini struggled to align the AI-generated story with my original vision, producing a result that felt disconnected from the image. The Storybook feature is now available worldwide on both desktop and mobile devices, supporting all languages that Gemini currently handles. While the tool shows promise as a fun, creative way to generate personalized stories for children, the occasional AI-generated oddities highlight the ongoing challenges in maintaining consistency and accuracy in image generation—especially when blending user input with AI interpretation.