NEW YORK: Imagine a world in which you could ask a book a question as you read it.
That’s the pitch for a wave of new AI tools allowing readers to do just that.
“You treat a book as if it were a living object. It’s totally different,” says Ahmed Kamel, CEO of Sinai.ai, a platform currently in testing.
With these tools, users have access to an e-book or audiobook alongside an AI chatbot. Not sure what a character’s motivations or historical context are? Just ask.
Readers can delve deeper into a character’s psychology, historical context, or philosophical concept – no separate research required.
French startup My Smart Book launched something similar in mid-April. Like Sinai, its chatbot relies solely on the text of the book itself, without any external information.
Even bookselling giant Amazon is in on the action. His audiobook company, Audible, launched a feature last fall called “Ask a Question.”
While listening, you can press a button, ask your question, hear the answer, then pick up the story where you left off.
“We are excited about the potential of AI-driven features to improve the customer experience,” an Audible spokesperson told AFP, adding that the tool is “designed to answer specific questions about the audiobook the listener is currently working with.”
The company believes it could also attract new fans, making the books “more accessible and palatable to a wider range of listeners.”
Amazon’s Kindle has its own version: “Ask this Book,” described as an “expert reading assistant” that answers questions about plot and characters “without disrupting your reading flow.”
ElevenLabs – a rising star in AI voice technology – has created “ElevenReader Voice Chat,” which it says “turns any book into a two-way conversation.”
Who gets paid?
But 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 those for which the author, their estate or publisher first signed on.
Another company, iChatbook, does things differently.
“Our chatbook is not a library of books, it’s a library of concepts, ideas and facts,” explains founder Brian Yang.
Instead of transmitting the text itself, the AI extracts key ideas and explains them in simpler language – which Yang says could be huge for students.
And since he never directly quotes the book, he avoids many copyright issues.
However, not all platforms are as careful. Some, like Myreader, allow users to download any book, whether copyrighted or not, and then plug it into an AI interface.
Google’s wildly popular NotebookLM – recently renamed Gemini Notebook – also doesn’t verify copyright, nor does BookWorm AI, a ChatGPT-based tool that calls itself a “book companion.”
Sinai.ai claims to have built what it calls “AI rights”: a system that pays authors and editors when their work is used by a chatbot.
The company also says it is in talks with several of the “Big Five” American publishers: Hachette, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Macmillan.
“I can at least clearly say that we are in active communication with almost four of the top five,” Kamel said.
“We have signed with many publishers in the United States, big names in the Middle East. Things are evolving very quickly.”
He even thinks technology could get people to reread old favorites: “Now is the time to maybe delve into areas where it was really hard to do in the past.”
None of the Big Five responded to AFP’s questions about their AI projects.
Not everyone is excited about technology.
In December, the Authors Guild criticized Amazon’s “Ask this Book” tool, saying it “is not licensed, brings in no new revenue, and does not allow publishers and authors to opt out, let alone opt in,” adding that it sets “a dangerous precedent.”
