New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books

Post by georgefrowny » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 9:30 PM UTC

DennisP wrote: post #86

lm28469 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more telling about the current state of affairs than the person who commented. Forgetting things is part of life, move on, we don't need daddy bezos sucking 1.21 gigawatts per request to tell you that some side character drunk a beer 12 chapters ago so you can enjoy the joke you just missed.

I don't mind bezos using 1.21 gigawatts per request, as long as it's only for a very short time.

Post by catgary » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 9:37 PM UTC

johnnyanmac wrote: post #49

catgary wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you implying that an LLM needs to be trained on a specific piece of text to answer questions about it?

If you want proper answers, yes. If you want to rely on whatever reddit or tiktok says about the book, then I guess at that point you're fine with hallucinations and others doing the thinking for you anyway. Hence the issues brought up in the article. I wouldn't trust an LLM for anything more than the most basic questions of it didn't actually have text to cite.

Post by rahimnathwani » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 9:50 PM UTC

  "Ask this Book is currently only available in the Kindle iOS app in the US, but Amazon says it “will come to Kindle devices and Android OS next year."

Post by g947o » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:10 PM UTC

ctoth wrote: post #58

g947o wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Sure. But you knew what this comment was trying to say. It is obviously saying that what happens on the Kindle is between the customer and possibly Amazon, specifically that authors should not be involved. They got their money. That part of the transaction is complete. I know you realize this, it's annoying to read the constant "not your keys not your coins" reframe.

Post by idontwantthis » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:14 PM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #80

idontwantthis wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.