A wave of new AI tools is transforming how readers engage with books, allowing them to ask questions directly about the content as they read. These innovations enable users to access an e-book or audiobook alongside an AI chatbot capable of answering questions about characters’ motives, historical backgrounds, or philosophical ideas — all without needing to conduct separate research. Ahmed Kamel, CEO of Sinai.ai, explains that this approach treats a book as a dynamic entity, creating a completely different interaction.
Mid-April saw French startup My Smart Book introduce a similar concept. Its chatbot exclusively relies on the book’s text, avoiding external sources. Amazon’s Audible also jumped into this space last fall with its “Ask a Question” feature, which lets listeners ask questions during playback and receive immediate answers, allowing them to continue listening seamlessly. An Audible spokesperson mentions that these AI features aim to enhance the customer experience and make books more accessible and appealing to a broader audience.
Amazon’s Kindle offers a comparable feature called “Ask this Book,” marketed as an “expert reading assistant” that responds to inquiries about plot points and characters without interrupting the reading flow. ElevenLabs, a rising AI voice tech company, developed “ElevenReader Voice Chat,” which transforms any book into an interactive, two-way conversation.
However, questions about rights and permissions are complex. Sinai.ai restricts its AI to publicly available books or those with explicit author, estate, or publisher approval. Conversely, iChatbook approaches this differently by focusing on concepts, ideas, and facts rather than quoting or reproducing the actual text, which helps avoid copyright issues. It extracts key ideas and simplifies explanations, which could be especially beneficial for students.
Not all platforms exercise the same caution. Some, like Myreader, permit users to upload any book, regardless of copyright status, then connect it to an AI interface. Google’s NotebookLM, recently renamed Gemini Notebook, and BookWorm AI, a ChatGPT-based “book companion,” do not impose copyright restrictions, potentially raising legal concerns.
Sinai.ai claims to have established an “AI rights” system—a framework that compensates authors and publishers when their works are used by chatbots. Kamel reports ongoing negotiations with several of the Big Five publishers—Hachette, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Macmillan—stating that discussions are progressing rapidly with almost four of these major entities. He envisions this tech encouraging readers to revisit classics or explore difficult-to-access areas, expanding reading horizons.
Meanwhile, critics, including the Authors Guild, have voiced concerns. In December, they criticized Amazon’s “Ask this Book,” arguing it lacks licensing, does not generate new income for publishers or authors, and offers no opt-out options, establishing a potentially dangerous precedent.