Tales → Lumi Labs

Tales turned news into AI-made video stories, and Marissa Mayer acquired it.

Problem

Take in the news quickly, as video instead of long articles.

Impact

AI-made video stories, solved to a point; acquired by Marissa Mayer for Lumi Labs.

• Tales → Lumi Labs - Videos from news, before AI video was a thing

  (2018 - 2020)

  Tales turned long news articles into Snapchat-style videos and stories.

  • Marissa Mayer acquired Tales and brought me on board to help start Lumi Labs (now Sunshine), where we experimented with a lot of ideas
  • At Lumi Labs (now Sunshine), built the app that led to a $20M seed round
  • The video above is a 2017 Tales story, made automatically from a news article
  • The name lives on in Tales.so, a book-podcast project from 2024