PlayWrite and Fabula at CHI

AI writing tools are moving past the blank text box and into story structure, stage blocking, and live improvisation. At CHI 2026 in Barcelona, Autodesk Research and Google Research each showed a different way to build stories with generative AI. (research.autodesk.com) (research.google) The conference was the 2026 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, held April 13-17 in Barcelona, Spain. Google listed a booth demo for “Fabula: a Narrative Storytelling Sidekick” on April 15, and Autodesk published PlayWrite as a CHI ’26 paper with DOI 10.1145/3772318.3791159. (research.google) (arxiv.org) The basic problem is that most AI writing systems still start with typed prompts, even when writers are working with scenes, props, and character movement. PlayWrite was built around that gap: users move virtual characters and objects in mixed reality, then the system turns those actions into “Intent Frames” and a timeline of narrative beats. (research.autodesk.com) (arxiv.org) Autodesk’s paper says PlayWrite uses a multi-agent pipeline and then a large language model to turn the arranged sequence into a finished narrative. The authors reported a study of 13 writers from different domains, who described the system as improvisational and said the AI’s unexpected responses helped spark ideas and break creative blocks. (research.autodesk.com) (arxiv.org) Google’s Fabula starts from a different storytelling problem: keeping a long narrative coherent while still letting the writer revise at different levels. Google described the CHI demo as an interactive tool that helps authors “structure & refine stories,” and said it was co-designed with 42 expert writers. (research.google) That “structure” point matters because stories are usually built in layers, from the overall arc down to scenes and smaller beats. Third-party descriptions of Fabula from workshop and demo materials say it uses ideas from narratology, the study of how stories are organized, and supports ideation, feedback, and interactive storytelling rather than one-shot script generation. (aru.ac.uk) (lilting.ch) The contrast between the two demos is concrete. PlayWrite treats storytelling as something you can act out with your hands in extended reality, while Fabula treats it as something you can plan and revise through a hierarchy of scenes and beats. (research.autodesk.com) (lilting.ch) Both projects also fit a broader shift in AI writing research away from “write the whole thing for me” systems and toward co-authoring tools. Google researcher Piotr Mirowski’s earlier work on Dramatron, presented in 2022 and later discussed in CHI-related research, also focused on screenplay and theatre-script collaboration rather than fully automated authorship. (arxiv.org) (research.google) Neither demo was presented as a consumer product launch. Google’s CHI page framed Fabula as a booth activity, and Autodesk framed PlayWrite as a research system evaluated in a small user study. (research.google) (research.autodesk.com) What CHI 2026 showed, in practice, is that AI storytelling research is splitting into tools for open-ended play and tools for structured planning. For writers, designers, and game makers, the pitch is no longer just text generation; it is faster iteration on branching scenes, character beats, and narrative form. (research.autodesk.com) (research.google)