Would you talk to your book? New AI tools offer readers to chat with chatbots

Instead of reproducing the original text, this AI summarizes and explains its key ideas. And because you never cite the book directly, you dodge a lot of copyright headaches.

However, not all platforms act with the same care. Some, like Myreader, allow users to upload any book, whether copyrighted or not, and then connect it to an AI interface.

NotebookLM, Google’s popular tool—recently renamed Gemini Notebook—does not filter for copyright either. The same goes for BookWorm AI, a ChatGPT-based tool that presents itself as a “reading companion.”

Sinai.ai claims to have created what it calls “AI rights,” a system that remunerates authors and publishers when a chatbot uses their work.

The company further states that it deals with several major US publishers, including Hachette, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Macmillan.

None of those big five publishers responded to AFP’s queries about their AI plans.

“We have signed agreements with numerous publishers in the United States and with big names in the Middle East,” Kamel said.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about this technology.

In December, the American authors’ guild Authors Guild harshly criticized Amazon’s “Ask this Book” tool for considering it sets “a dangerous precedent.”

“It does not have legal authorization to use content, it does not provide additional income and it does not offer publishers or authors the possibility of excluding themselves from the system, much less the possibility of joining voluntarily,” he emphasized.