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New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

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Re: New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

#71

Post by squigz »

savanaly wrote: post #2

If they're not using the book text to train models (keeping the focus on this particular new Kindle feature), where's the room for objection? My device, my content, it's none of the author's business how I read it, in my view. Edit: Given I've been a reader of HN for some time, I am perfectly aware that on Kindle you don't own the content, just a license to the content. Don't need any more people pointing this out! L…

> Edit: Given I've been a reader of HN for some time, I am perfectly aware that on Kindle you don't own the content, just a license to the content. Don't need any more people pointing this out! Lol. In my house we still call owning a license to something that is not likely to be revoked "owning it".

The amount of people completely - and likely intentionally - missing your point is both frustrating and completely unsurprising.

A quick reminder that this is part of HN's guidelines

> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

Re: New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

#72

Post by dcre »

ceejayoz wrote: post #36
dcre wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that direct a counterexample. We have no idea what underlying data from the Fallout show they gave to the model to summarize. Surely it wasn't the scripts of the episodes. The nature of the error makes me think it might have been given stills of the show to analyze visually. In this case we know it is the text of the book.

> It's not that direct a counterexample. Amazon made a video with AI summarizing their own show, and got it broadly wrong. Why would we expect their book analysis to be dramatically better - especially as far fewer human eyes are presumably on the summaries of some random book that sold 500 copies than official marketing pushes for the Fallout show.

For the reason I gave in my answer: it would be answering based on the text of the book. I don't expect it to be particularly great regardless because these features always use cheap models.

Re: New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

#73

Post by gwbas1c »

> To ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out.

> It also sounds as though authors and publishers were, for the most part, not notified of this feature’s existence.

This is perfectly reasonable fair use.

I'm starting to realize that a lot of content creators either don't understand fair use, or otherwise are unreasonable control freaks.

Re: New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

#74

Post by ceejayoz »

dcre wrote: post #72
ceejayoz wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not that direct a counterexample. Amazon made a video with AI summarizing their own show, and got it broadly wrong. Why would we expect their book analysis to be dramatically better - especially as far fewer human eyes are presumably on the summaries of some random book that sold 500 copies than official marketing pushes for the Fallout show.

For the reason I gave in my answer: it would be answering based on the text of the book. I don't expect it to be particularly great regardless because these features always use cheap models.

> For the reason I gave in my answer: it would be answering based on the text of the book.

Why would that not also be true for the Fallout season one recap video?

Re: New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

#75

Post by ctoth »

tshaddox wrote: post #57
savanaly wrote: post #2

If they're not using the book text to train models (keeping the focus on this particular new Kindle feature), where's the room for objection? My device, my content, it's none of the author's business how I read it, in my view. Edit: Given I've been a reader of HN for some time, I am perfectly aware that on Kindle you don't own the content, just a license to the content. Don't need any more people pointing this out! L…

Amazon is selling digital copies (or licenses, if you like) of the books, which means they need permission from the copyright holders. This permission is likely backed by a contractual agreement that covers some details about how Amazon presents the digital copies to the end users. (This of course wouldn't be the case if they were reselling physical books.)

So what part of this presentation agreement could possibly apply?

Re: New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

#76

Post by catgary »

ceejayoz wrote: post #36
dcre wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that direct a counterexample. We have no idea what underlying data from the Fallout show they gave to the model to summarize. Surely it wasn't the scripts of the episodes. The nature of the error makes me think it might have been given stills of the show to analyze visually. In this case we know it is the text of the book.

> It's not that direct a counterexample. Amazon made a video with AI summarizing their own show, and got it broadly wrong. Why would we expect their book analysis to be dramatically better - especially as far fewer human eyes are presumably on the summaries of some random book that sold 500 copies than official marketing pushes for the Fallout show.

Because text analysis is substantially easier than video analysis?

Re: New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

#77

Post by tiahura »

g947o wrote: post #42
savanaly wrote: post #2

If they're not using the book text to train models (keeping the focus on this particular new Kindle feature), where's the room for objection? My device, my content, it's none of the author's business how I read it, in my view. Edit: Given I've been a reader of HN for some time, I am perfectly aware that on Kindle you don't own the content, just a license to the content. Don't need any more people pointing this out! L…

Not your content, it's Amazon's content, you only purchased a license to view it, which can be revoked at any time if daddy Jeff is not happy. And I am not being cynical. That is literally what is on their web page, e.g. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTZT9PLM

Most of it is _not_ Amazon’s content. They don’t own the book, so they can’t sell you the book. Nemo dat.

Re: New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

#78

Post by benmanns »

Marsymars wrote: post #44
savanaly wrote: post #2

If they're not using the book text to train models (keeping the focus on this particular new Kindle feature), where's the room for objection? My device, my content, it's none of the author's business how I read it, in my view. Edit: Given I've been a reader of HN for some time, I am perfectly aware that on Kindle you don't own the content, just a license to the content. Don't need any more people pointing this out! L…

> My device, my content, it's none of the author's business how I read it, in my view. In practice, that's not the case though, e.g. publishers on Kindle can choose not to allow text-to-speech assistive functionality.

Audiobook publishers require/request this when you sell subsidiary rights. We’ve been able to push back citing accessibility concerns. I find it really annoying when not available for my own reading.

Re: New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

#79

Post by ceejayoz »

catgary wrote: post #76
ceejayoz wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not that direct a counterexample. Amazon made a video with AI summarizing their own show, and got it broadly wrong. Why would we expect their book analysis to be dramatically better - especially as far fewer human eyes are presumably on the summaries of some random book that sold 500 copies than official marketing pushes for the Fallout show.

Because text analysis is substantially easier than video analysis?

Amazon has the Fallout scripts, subtitles, internal show bibles, etc. all available to them.

Re: New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

#80

Post by renewiltord »

idontwantthis wrote: post #24
renewiltord wrote: post #9

Seems like a great feature. What I’d really like is a “recap for me till here” for books I started reading then stopped for whatever reason. I was reading Unsong for a bit (great book, very enjoyable) and then lately the baby has wanted a lot more attention so I didn’t get much reading done. I just want to catch up quick so I can continue. LLMs are great for this, for the plot and character questions, etc. Authors ha…

I’ve found the complete opposite as recently as last week. When I ask a deep question about a book it will hallucinate whole paragraphs of bogus justification and even invent characters

The LLM just working on its own is just generative intelligence. You have to ground it if you want the real stuff. The Kindle app has the text of the book and I'd want it to put that in the LLM context.
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