In life, we often fall in love with stories other than our own. It could be a book that we read or a movie we watched, wishing it would never end. Perhaps it’s because we fall for the characters, the storytelling, or the places where the stories unfold.

Even when the authors and directors put down their pens and cameras, those who have fallen in love with these stories sometimes can’t let go. How many times have you imagined more for the characters and scenes from a movie or a book? Yeah, me too. It’s common; we humans can’t easily let go of connections. We want more.

Zarah, a visual artist, is making it possible for people to extend their favorite stories indefinitely and take them wherever their imagination leads. Live in Pemberley with Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy forever, conquer worlds with Paul Atreides until every house kneels.

Zarah’s company, Echoblue, has developed a product that lets you extend a story. You define the story, characters, and set scenes, and Echoblue will write scene by scene, dialogue by dialogue. Don’t like something? Change it. You are the author now.

Our Chat with Zarah Del Rosario – Founder of EchoBlue AI

Q. Why the name EchoBlue? What does it mean?

Zarah: “Echo” represents the voices and stories we want to amplify and allow to continue resonating long after their initial telling. As for “Blue” – we wanted something to symbolize the broad, all-encompassing nature of the topics and genres we cover like a vast ocean for people to explore. Stories create ripples that echo endlessly, and we wanted a name that would resonate with that concept.

Q. I read the little excerpt you have on the EchoBlue website which takes the story of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy a bit further into their married life. Does this mean that users could provide EchoBlue details about their characters, a storyline, set the environment, and EchoBlue could write the story scene by scene, dialogue by dialogue?

Zarah: That is correct! We are building this functionality into our Echoblue studio. The Pemberely project is a technical demo of what our users will be able to create using our technology.

Q. It says on the Echoblue website that each decision leads to a new path, what does that mean?

Zarah: The characters that participate in a scene are not being told what to do, but are actually unique agents responding to the situation in the story being laid out, in real time. Any decision the character chooses creates a new path in the story. A new unique story from an infinite permutation of possible paths as the story progresses. These paths can also be influenced based on a participant’s input -whether it is an individual who wants to partake in the story, a group, or even the introduction of another AI Character.

Q. You have a co-founder. Tell us about how you met him and your relationship.

Zarah: I’m fortunate to have two excellent co-founders who bring unique strengths to our venture.

I met Kenan Stipek while working together at previous companies. We developed a strong professional rapport and discovered that we share similar thought processes and visions for product development. When the opportunity arose to collaborate on a project we were both passionate about, it was a natural decision to join forces as co-founders.

My other co-founder is Raymond Matthew Padilla. Ray and I connected over our shared creativity and complementary skill sets, which sparked the original concept for our company. Our combined drive to bring this vision to life, along with clear communication and mutual respect, has enabled us to build a successful working relationship as co-founders.

I feel incredibly lucky to have such a talented and dedicated team. Kenan’s experience and aligned thinking, coupled with Ray’s creativity and our ability to develop ideas together, have created a solid foundation for our company’s future growth and success.

Q. What is the current status of EchoBlue? How soon can users test it?

Zarah: We are about to launch the Pembereley tech demo so people can see what our technology can create. We also plan to start inviting users from our waitlist to our alpha studio web app by the end of April.

We appreciate Zarah for taking time out of her busy schedule to answer our questions. Check out her startup EchoBlue.ai.