NEW YORK: Imagine a world where you could ask a book a question as you read it. That’s the pitch from a wave of new AI tools letting readers 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 now in testing.With these tools, users get access to an e-book or audiobook alongside an AI chatbot. Confused about a character’s motives or the historical setting? Just ask. Readers can dig into a character’s psychology, historical context, or a philosophical concept — no separate research required.French startup My Smart Book launched something similar in mid-April. Like Sinai, its chatbot draws only on the actual text of the book – no outside information. Even book-selling behemoth Amazon is in on it. Its audiobook company, Audible, launched a feature called “Ask a Question” last fall.Mid-listen, you can tap a button, ask your question, hear the answer, and then pick up the story right where you left off. “We’re excited about the potential for AI-powered features to enhance the customer experience,” an Audible spokesperson said, adding the tool is “designed to answer questions specifically about the audiobook the listener is currently engaged with”.Amazon’s Kindle has its own version: “Ask this Book,” described as an “expert reading assistant” that answers questions about plot “without disrupting your reading flow”.ElevenLabs – a rising star in AI voice tech – built “ElevenReader Voice Chat,” which it says “turns any book into a two-way conversation”.
Who gets paid for developing the feature?
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 ones where the author, their estate, or the publisher signed off first.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 handing over the actual text, the AI pulls out key ideas and explains them in simpler language – something Yang thinks could be beneficial for students. And since it never quotes the book directly, it sidesteps a lot of copyright headaches.Not every platform is as careful, though. Some, like Myreader, let users upload any book, whether or not it’s under copyright, and then connect it to an AI interface. Google’s NotebookLM – recently rebranded as Gemini Notebook – doesn’t screen for copyright either, and neither does BookWorm AI, a ChatGPT-based tool that calls itself a “book companion”. Sinai.ai says it has built something it calls “AI rights” – a system that pays authors and publishers when their work gets used by a chatbot.Not everyone’s thrilled. In Dec, the Authors Guild slammed 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,” adding that it set “a dangerous precedent”.(BY AFP)
