If you’ve read several chapters of a novel and forgotten who the character was, Amazon is hoping its new Kindle feature will jog your memory without putting down the e-reader. The feature, called Ask This Book, was announced during Amazon’s hardware event in September, but is finally available to US users on the Kindle iOS app.
According to Amazon, this feature can currently be found on thousands of English best-selling Kindle titles and “reveals information only up to your current reading position” for spoiler-free responses. To use it, you can highlight a passage in any book you’ve purchased or borrowed and ask it questions about the plot, characters or other important details, and the AI assistant will provide “immediate, relevant, spoiler-free information.” You will also be able to ask follow-up questions for more details.
Although Ask This Book may be helpful for some Kindle readers, the feature touches on a major point of contention between authors and publishers. in response to Publishers LunchAn Amazon spokesperson, a daily newsletter for the publishing industry, said that, “To ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to select titles.” Other AI companies are already facing lawsuits claiming copyright infringement. Recently, the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune sued Perplexity, accusing the AI company of using its copyrighted works to train its LLMs.
As far as the Ask This Book feature is concerned, Amazon is already planning to expand it beyond the iOS app and will introduce it to Kindle devices and Android OS apps next year. In addition to this new feature, Amazon also introduced an iOS app for Kindle devices with recaps and books in a series that function like “previously on” roundups of TV shows between seasons. However, Amazon recently had to withdraw its AI-generated video recaps feature, so it may also be worth double-checking the information you get from recaps.
<a href