New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by dpark » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 5:06 AM UTC

Rebelgecko wrote: post #111

dpark wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am so confused by some of the comments in this thread. All these weird mental gymnastics to argue that users should have less rights. “Oh, you think you should be able to use an LLM with a book you paid for? Well you don’t own and book.” Ok, and you like that? You want even less ownership? Less control?

I don't agree with the way you're interpreting the comment. If anything I think it's BAD that you don't really "own" digital content. I guess my argument is that Amazon shouldn't be able to have their cake and eat it too

You agree that we should own our digital content but it sounds like you don’t want this particular capability because… fuck Amazon.

I can totally understand that sentiment but I don’t think giving up end user capabilities to spite Amazon is logically aligned with wanting ownership of digital media.

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

#122

Post by bluefirebrand » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 6:24 AM UTC

akersten wrote: post #83

johnnyanmac wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the "but what about a human" argument doesn't really work here. Scale of data matters as always. And an Ai for kindle has the scale of 20 years of literature (and more if they just scrape the internet).

> Yeah, the "but what about a human" argument doesn't really work here. Scale of data matters as always. And an Ai for kindle has the scale of 20 years of literature I haven't seen a convincing argument why not. There's millions of librarians with the knowledge of more than 20 years of literature under their belt. Why can they answer your questions about a book but the robot can't?

> Why can they answer your questions about a book but the robot can't

Robots simply do not deserve the same consideration and the same rights that humans have

It's really that easy. Humans deserve more rights than inanimate objects

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

#123

Post by dcre » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 6:33 AM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #74

dcre wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Did you read a word past the part of my answer you quoted?

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

#124

Post by johanyc » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 11:06 AM UTC

captn3m0 wrote: post #96

There's also a few plugins for KOReader that achieve the same: - https://github.com/omer-faruq/assistant.koplugin , which is forked from: - https://github.com/drewbaumann/AskGPT The first one even has prompts for quick recaps, summarize, translations, and more.

assistant.koplugin is pretty good. I've been using it for a while now.

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

#125

Post by frm88 » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 2:04 PM UTC

captn3m0 wrote: post #96

There's also a few plugins for KOReader that achieve the same: - https://github.com/omer-faruq/assistant.koplugin , which is forked from: - https://github.com/drewbaumann/AskGPT The first one even has prompts for quick recaps, summarize, translations, and more.

Onyx has an AI feature in their boox which came very surprisingly with a firmware update a couple of month ago. It does the same thing - however: this needs constant access to the Internet to work and with boox you can switch it off. The article states that on Amazon apps/devices this will be perma-on and I'm sure that will do wonders for your data plan, particularly on phones. /s

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

#126

Post by xtiansimon » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 2:06 PM UTC

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #29

charcircuit wrote: post #5

This sounds useful for when you forget something that happened chapters earlier or when you space out and need to figure out what's happening. This feature should work for the user, author's shouldn't be able to deprive me of this tool.

Fantasy series seem like they've gotten longer and longer and it's often years between volumes. Many authors have started doing recaps of their previous books at the start of later volumes, but not all. I could see this being useful for that.

I want a character chart, social graph.

I can also imagine a character interaction graph, animated by chapter.

Oh, and pronunciation. The Sun Eater series is eloquent, but the names are inscrutable without having heard a few of the audio books.

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

#127

Post by ceejayoz » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 2:32 PM UTC

dcre wrote: post #123

ceejayoz wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Did you read a word past the part of my answer you quoted?

Of course. I’m just not sure how “the Kindle feature’s cheap models are gonna be even worse at the task” helps your point.

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

#128

Post by Balgair » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 2:39 PM UTC

As an author, this sounds amazing, if I can also get a look at the things people ask.

Especially if I can get some sort of stats on the questions.

Like, if there were a lot of questions about when a character did something, then I know I wrote that badly.

Or if people talk about a set of characters, then I know that those characters made an impact.

Or if no-one asks about the book itself, but about some plot point or worldbuilding idea.

In general, if I, the author, can get a peek at this data too, it would be of immense value to me (and my publisher).

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

#129

Post by squigz » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 3:22 PM UTC

strangescript wrote: post #110

My kids have book reports and stuff. Lately I can use AI to generate non-trivial questions about the books and use it to quiz them without me knowing anything about the books. Been super useful.

How do you know they're non-trivial if you're not familiar with the material? Can you provide some examples? How long have you been doing it? Do your kids like it?

Just curious, not trying to attack you :)

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

#130

Post by akersten » Sat, Dec 13, 2025, 10:57 PM UTC

bluefirebrand wrote: post #122

akersten wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah, the "but what about a human" argument doesn't really work here. Scale of data matters as always. And an Ai for kindle has the scale of 20 years of literature I haven't seen a convincing argument why not. There's millions of librarians with the knowledge of more than 20 years of literature under their belt. Why can they answer your questions about a book but the robot can't?

> Why can they answer your questions about a book but the robot can't Robots simply do not deserve the same consideration and the same rights that humans have It's really that easy. Humans deserve more rights than inanimate objects

Luckily we do not live in an allow-list based society where we need to ask permission for every new thing we invent. The burden is on someone to show that robot answers book questions is somehow bad, to justify outlawing it. And that has not been shown. Bringing up the ontology of humans having human rights has nothing to do with the argument at hand.