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An Amazon AI chatbot that sums up the book you are reading while you are reading it. While trampling over the writer’s rights.

“Ask This Book."

“Your expert reading assistant, instantly answering questions about plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements without disrupting your reading flow.”

Enshittification is too polite a word for all this.

#Books #Bookstodon
#Enshittification #AI

writerbeware.blog/2025/12/12/k…

Passage abbreviated to fit. "Story So Far lets you catch up on the book you’re reading—but only up to where you’ve read without any spoilers. For our endlessly curious readers, Ask this Book will let you highlight any passage of text while reading a book and get spoiler-free answers to questions about things like a character’s motive or the significance of a scene. The lead article in today’s Publishers Lunch (PL) is all about Ask This Book, which went live in the Kindle iOS app earlier this week (it’ll be rolled out on all devices and Android OS in 2026). Amazon describes it as “your expert reading assistant, instantly answering questions about plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements without disrupting your reading flow.” You can highlight a phrase or sentence, type a question into a search box, and AI will generate an answer “right on the page.” That might sound inoffensive enough. But as PL points out, Ask This Book is, in effect, “an in-book chatbot. You ask any question about the book, and a generative AI process provides you answers.” Which would seem…hmmm…to raise some rights concerns. Questioned about this, Amazon was not prepared to elaborate, but did note that Ask This Book is not optional for rightsholders: Asked whether rightsholders could elect to withdraw from the program, Iraheta wrote, “To ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out.”

Kindle's New Gen AI-Powered "Ask This Book" Feature Raises Rights Concerns - Writer Beware

In a recent press release, Amazon noted that some new features were coming to Kindle. We’re adding new AI-powered reading features that preserve the magic of reading on Kindle.
Victoria Strauss (Writer Beware)
#books #ai #bookstodon #enshittification
in reply to Ciara

funnymonkey
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funnymonkey
• •

This is exactly why the "we can use data for product improvement" clauses in privacy policies have always been a land grab.

They allow vendors to manufacture a "legitimate use" that justifies theft.

in reply to Ciara

funnymonkey
mastodon - Link to source
funnymonkey
• •

Thank you!

(I have read more privacy policies than is probably healthy -- and I have had this conversation with Very Serious People* who repeatedly assured me this was fine)

*For real, these were people leading/with positions of significant responsibility in orgs advocating for and writing laws related to privacy and user rights

in reply to funnymonkey

Ciara
mastodon - Link to source
Ciara
• •
@funnymonkey They have been clever. We didn't even realise we were being entangled, not even professionals. These kinds of moves have been done both sneakily and brazenly, all at the same time.
@funnymonkey
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