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. 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’s breezy announcement of the feature’s debut 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.” There’s a little video to demonstrate the process. 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: > Our query about what rights the company was relying upon to execute the new feature was not answered, nor did they elaborate on the technical details of the service and any protections involved (whether to prevent against hallucinations, or to protect the text from AI training). > > Asked whether rightsholders could elect to withdraw from the program, [Amazon spokesperson Ale] 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.” Most of the literary agents and publishing executives PL reached out to for comment were not aware that Ask This Book was live–and some were not aware of it at all. PL quotes one publisher who echoes the rights concerns, noting the need for “both a legal and technical review to understand the process and protections Amazon is deploying, as well as the rights they are relying on to do this in the first place.” It’s not the first time Amazon has rolled out a new feature without adequate notice or consideration of the rights involved. > For those with long memories it will recall the early days of Kindle, when in early 2009 the company rolled out a text to speech feature that would read aloud ebooks, trampling on audio rights for the sake of being able to do so. At the time, Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener insisted “these are not audiobooks. Text to speech is simply software that runs on devices and reads content.” Simply software. > > Pushback from rightsholders was considerable and immediate, and Amazon quickly conceded to make the feature optional, “modifying our systems so that rightsholders can decide on a title-by-title basis whether they want text-to-speech enabled or disabled for any particular title.” They denied any infringement, claiming the “experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given.” Yet they acknowledged, “Nevertheless, we strongly believe many rightsholders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver’s seat.” Will there be similar pushback on Ask This Book? As PL points out, “many people would deem the outputs of generative AI analyzing a particular copyright work as the very embodiment of a derivative work (or simply a direct infringement).” Agents and publishers broadly regard anything to do with generative AI as a separate right reserved solely to the author, and publishing contracts are increasingly addressing this issue. The primary focus has been on preventing unpermissioned AI training, but with the technology embedding itself at warp speed in all aspects of the book business, the rights implications are expanding just as fast…especially where, as here, they sneak in under the radar. ### Share this: * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads * Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon * Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn * Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky * Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr * Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * Click to print (Opens in new window) Print * Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest * Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * More * * Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * ### Like this: Like Loading... ### _Related_

Mark Rider has been torn from his home on Earth to the planet Antona, an uncountable number of years in the far future. Here the two city-states of Ruat and Thirsk clash in battle - and Mark finds himself in the middle of the fight to save the Princess of Thirsk, the woman he has come to love. The Crystal Sword, a 15,000 word short read, is the third part of The Swords of Antona, a new Science Fantasy novel in the grand tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard, and Michael Moorcock.

is there a name for the specific pipeline of like. some guy says something nasty, and rather than apologize, they double down on it, and everyone is like. really dude? and theyre like. no seriously im not backing down. so everyone tells em to screw off. except a bunch of other guys who sit in a ditch all day eating worms, who beckon him over. and ten years later you find the guy, and hes STILL in the ditch, mouth FULL of worms, yelling about the non-worm-eaters and how they're destroying society

If we all ignore the winter, it'll eventually get bored and go away. Works every time!

Its product has never been more critically or financially successful. Why is it auctioning itself off?