“Here’s where we establish our city,” Brownie, a fluffy, orange tabby proclaimed. He gazed upon his fellow felines, raised his majestic tail, puffed out his chest and proclaimed, “This park shall be renamed Feline City, a haven for all strays!”
Brownie’s proclamation mirrors a folktale where Sang Nila Utama, a prince from Palembang, founded a settlement named Singapura on the island of Temasek that later came to be known as Singapore.
This spin on the folktale is one of the possible results of a story developed by StoryGen, a first-of-its-kind generative AI-enabled prototype that AWS has produced for libraries, and is being showcased at the National Library Board’s (NLB) newly reopened Central Public Library.
Themed Singapore: Kaleidoscope, the library is transformed with an array of new features that incorporate Singapore stories on culture, heritage, and literature.
A customisable experience
As part of the revamped Library’s Immersive Room, StoryGen allows library patrons to add a unique twist to one of six well-loved stories, from Singapore folktales to classics like The Little Red Riding Hood, in an engaging, relatable, and interactive way by using generative AI.
Library patrons can customise their stories by choosing from a range of main and secondary characters, genres, locations, and story endings.
A familiar storyline like The Boy and The Garfish—where a boy helps a village fend off a garfish attack using tree trunks—could be creatively retold as a comedic sci-fi story about how a boy helps humankind win an intergalactic battle with planet-sized space sharks.
After the story is generated, library patrons can view it on the Immersive Room’s curved wall projection, and download their StoryGen creation as a PDF file.
Using AI to bring reimagined stories to life
AWS Professional Services, AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, and AWS Partner Activate Interactive, a homegrown technology consultancy, collaborated with NLB to develop StoryGen.
Through Amazon Bedrock, StoryGen uses foundational models to generate stories based on human instructions (or ‘prompts’), and image prompts to generate contextually relevant illustrations, which combine to bring users’ reimagined stories to life.
Foundational models are algorithms that generate content based on human instructions, and Amazon Bedrock is a service fully managed by AWS to give businesses and organisations access to industry-leading foundational models.
Heralding a new chapter in how Singapore organisations use generative AI
StoryGen is a prototype under NLB’s ExperienceIT initiative that makes emerging technologies accessible to all, and is the second Generative AI-enabled prototype NLB has developed with AWS, following ChatBook. Recently opened for user testing, Chatbook leverages Generative AI to let users converse with a book, generating dialogue based on the book’s contents.
“AWS’s collaboration with NLB to produce the StoryGen immersive experience and ChatBook using Generative AI technology opens up new, exciting ways for library patrons of all ages to discover and learn more about Singapore’s unique culture and history, as well as the world around us,” said Elsie Tan, country manager, Worldwide Public Sector, Singapore at AWS.
“We are proud to support NLB in its efforts to realise its LAB25 vision by leveraging AI and innovative technology such as Amazon Bedrock to reinvent the library experience, and inspire and empower future generations of learners and storytellers.”
Reimagining Sang Nila Utama as an orange tabby cat is just the start—StoryGen brings to life the opportunity ahead for Singapore organisations to use generative AI to create personalised and locally relevant experiences for citizens and customers.
These could come in the form of chatbots speaking Singlish, and even more personalised recommendations for customers in e-commerce.
AWS empowers organisations and Singapore to embrace an AI-driven and AI-ready future, by providing them with reliable, simple, and secure tools they need to experiment with AI, and develop AI-based solutions to meet business and citizens’ needs.
