New AI tools let readers talk to books
New AI tools are allowing readers to interact with books through chatbots, while raising concerns about copyright, permissions and how authors and publishers should be paid.
Imagine a world where you could ask a book a question as you read it.
That is the pitch from a wave of new AI tools that allow readers to do exactly that.
“You are dealing with a book as if it is a living object. It’s totally different,” says Ahmed Kamel, CEO of Sinai.ai, a platform that is currently being tested.
With these tools, users get access to an e-book or audiobook along with an AI chatbot. Confused about a character’s motives or the historical setting? Just ask.
Readers can explore a character’s psychology, historical context or a philosophical concept, with no separate research required.
French start-up My Smart Book launched something similar in mid-April. Like Sinai, its chatbot draws only on the actual text of the book and does not use external information.
Even book-selling behemoth Amazon is getting involved. Its audiobook company, Audible, launched a feature called ‘Ask a Question’ last autumn.
While listening, users can tap a button, ask a question, hear the answer and then continue the story from where they left off.
“We’re excited about the potential for AI-powered features to enhance the customer experience,” an Audible spokesperson told AFP, adding that the tool is “designed to answer questions specifically about the audiobook the listener is currently engaged with.”
The company believes it could also attract new fans by making books “more accessible and appetising to a broader range of listeners”.
Amazon’s Kindle has its own version, ‘Ask this Book’, which is described as an “expert reading assistant” that answers questions about plots and characters “without disrupting your reading flow”.
ElevenLabs, a rising star in AI voice technology, created ‘ElevenReader Voice Chat’, which it says “turns any book into a two-way conversation”.
Who gets paid?
However, the question of who gets paid or has permission to develop this new reading superpower is a thorny one.
Sinai.ai says it only offers books that are either in the public domain or have been approved by the author, their estate or the publisher.
Another company, iChatbook, does things differently.
“Our chat book is not a library of books. It’s a library of concepts and ideas and facts,” says founder Brian Yang.
Instead of providing the actual text, the AI extracts key ideas and explains them in simpler language, something Yang believes could be hugely beneficial for students.
Since it never quotes the book directly, it also sidesteps many copyright concerns.
Not every platform is as careful, though. Some, such as Myreader, allow users to upload any book, whether or not it is protected by copyright, and then connect it to an AI interface.
Google’s wildly popular NotebookLM, recently rebranded as Gemini Notebook, does not screen for copyright either. Neither does BookWorm AI, a ChatGPT-based tool that describes itself as a “book companion”.
Sinai.ai says it has developed something it calls ‘AI rights’, a system that pays authors and publishers when their work is used by a chatbot.
The company also claims it is in talks with several of the ‘Big Five’ US publishers: Hachette, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Macmillan.
“I can clearly say at least that we are in active communications with almost four of the top five,” Kamel said.
“We signed with many publishers in the US, big names in the Middle East. Things are moving very rapidly.”
He also believes the technology could encourage people to reread old favourites.
“Now is the time to maybe dive into areas where it was really hard to do in the past,” he said.
None of the Big Five publishers responded to AFP’s questions about their AI plans.
Not everyone is thrilled about the technology.
In December, the Authors Guild criticised Amazon’s ‘Ask this Book’ tool, saying it “is not licensed, brings in no new income, and does not allow publishers and authors to opt out, much less opt in”. It added that the tool set “a dangerous precedent”.
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