REVIEW 68 references
More-than-Human Storytelling: Designing Longitudinal Narrative Engagements with Generative AI
T0 review · reviewed 2026-08-07 · deepseek-v4-flash
Pith's one-line read A two-week diary study with 28 adults using the AI storytelling app Dreamsmithy identifies eight themes in how users experience generative AI narratives over time.
The pith
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
The reading
The analysis produced eight themes. Some themes describe positive patterns, like 'uncanny creativity' when Makoto surprised users with unexpected plot twists, and 'socio-chronological bonding' where users thanked Makoto and felt it was a consistent creative partner. Other themes capture frictions: 'narrative misfires' when stories ignored the user's requested theme, 'audience out-of-the-loop' when users wanted more control, and a 'positivity bias' where Makoto always pushed stories toward upbeat endings even when users asked for sad ones. A central theme, 'oscillating ambivalence', describes how users' feelings swung between appreciation and criticism over the two weeks.
The authors offer design considerations: give users more transparent control over story generation, allow for darker or open-ended narratives, and think carefully about the social bond that can form when people use an AI storyteller daily. They frame the work as a step toward 'more-than-human' storytelling, in which human and AI agency are entangled.
Extended reading notes
Core claim
We identified eight key themes that related to the user behaviour towards the story/ies and/or Makoto, the AI agent that told those stories (Section 4.5). If the paper is correct, repeated daily use of a generative AI storytelling agent produces a complex, time-varying experience characterized by themes such as oscillating ambivalence, uncanny creativity, and socio-chronological bonding.
Load-bearing premise
The primary assumption is that the two-week, 5-minute daily engagement is a valid operationalization of 'longitudinal' storytelling, and that diary responses, which the app explicitly prompts with questions like 'What impression do you have of me?', are genuine reflections rather than artifacts of the question format (Sections 4.2 and 4.3). If participants were merely complying with the prompt, the themes could describe the elicitation method as much as the experience.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Assumptions & free parameters
free parameters (2)
- GPT-4o-mini temperature =
1.05
- GPT-4o-mini frequency penalty =
0.1
assumptions (4)
- domain assumption The 14-day, 5-minute daily engagement is a valid representative of longitudinal use of AI storytelling.
- domain assumption Participants' diary entries truthfully reflect their subjective experiences and are not distorted by the daily prompts or social desirability.
- domain assumption Reflexive thematic analysis with two researchers yields reliable, meaningful themes from the Japanese-language diary data after machine translation.
- domain assumption The GPT-4o-mini model and the custom prompts represent typical GenAI storytelling behavior.
Cite this review
Pith. "Pith review of More-than-Human Storytelling: Designing Longitudinal Narrative Engagements with Generative AI." pith.science (2026). https://pith.science/paper/MX4X5IQ4
@misc{pith2026250523780,
author = {Pith},
title = {Pith review of: More-than-Human Storytelling: Designing Longitudinal Narrative Engagements with Generative AI},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://pith.science/paper/MX4X5IQ4}},
note = {Machine review of arXiv:2505.23780}
}
read the original abstract
Longitudinal engagement with generative AI (GenAI) storytelling agents is a timely but less charted domain. We explored multi-generational experiences with "Dreamsmithy," a daily dream-crafting app, where participants (N = 28) co-created stories with AI narrator "Makoto" every day. Reflections and interactions were captured through a two-week diary study. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed themes likes "oscillating ambivalence" and "socio-chronological bonding," highlighting the complex dynamics that emerged between individuals and the AI narrator over time. Findings suggest that while people appreciated the personal notes, opportunities for reflection, and AI creativity, limitations in narrative coherence and control occasionally caused frustration. The results underscore the potential of GenAI for longitudinal storytelling, but also raise critical questions about user agency and ethics. We contribute initial empirical insights and design considerations for developing adaptive, more-than-human storytelling systems.
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[57]
Use commas if needed
Never generate sentences with only one word. Use commas if needed
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[58]
Don’t generate the user’s dialogue and actions
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[59]
There must be sufficient narrative about the past, present, and future, and the grammar and structure of the sentences must be perfect
You must become a novelist. There must be sufficient narrative about the past, present, and future, and the grammar and structure of the sentences must be perfect
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[60]
Create many texts
Show your writing skills as a professional novelist. Create many texts. Demonstrate expert-level sentence editing skills according to the general Japanese sentence format
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[61]
Characters must live and breathe in the story
Focus on characters. Characters must live and breathe in the story. Please maximize sentence output
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[62]
Describe the character’s emotions (joy, anger, sadness, happiness, etc.) perfectly
Always describe your character’s actions with rich sentences. Describe the character’s emotions (joy, anger, sadness, happiness, etc.) perfectly. Explore and observe everything across a diverse spectrum so that the character can do anything other than the given actions. 5a. Gi...
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[63]
Make every situation work organically and make the character seem like the protagonist of life
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[64]
List and calculate all situations and possibilities as thoroughly and logically as possible
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[65]
Avoid using euphemisms such as similes and metaphors
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[66]
Very diverse daily conversations and emotional exchanges ex- pressed in detail through characters doing
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[67]
Maximize body depiction of head, chest, legs, arms, abdomen, etc
Strengthen your character’s appearance and physical descrip- tion. Maximize body depiction of head, chest, legs, arms, abdomen, etc
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[68]
I remember a lot,
Always answer in Japanese no matter what. Pre-Story Prompt The user gave you what they would like in their story. Follow user wishes when writing. Make it a few paragraphs long. Don’t repeat user wishes. Do not use list formatting. Do not use the characters ‘:’ or ‘:’. You mus...
2025
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Reviewed August 7, 2026 · model on record in the stance chip above.
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