Amazon Kindle AI feature launches with no opt-out for authors as Ask this Book goes live

Kindle app now answers questions about the book you're reading

Amazon has launched a new AI feature in the Kindle app that gives spoiler-free answers to questions about the book you're reading, and confirmed that authors can't opt out from the feature. The company calls Ask this Book an "expert reading assistant" in its announcement, and says that it's capable of answering questions about "plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements," all while avoiding spoilers by limiting its answers to content from the pages you've read so far. It's essentially an in-book chatbot, accessible from the book menu or by highlighting a passage of text you want to ask about. Amazon spokesperson Ale Iraheta told Publishers Lunch that the answers are "non-shareable and non-copyable," and only available to readers who've purchased or rented books. Iraheta also said that the feature is always on, noting that "there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out." First announced in September, the option is available now for thousands of English-language books in the US on iOS. Amazon says it will roll out to Kindle devices and the Android app next year, though didn't give a timeline for an expansion beyond the US or to additional languages. It joins Kindle's AI-powered Recaps feature for book series, but arrives only days after Amazon was forced to pull error-filled AI recaps from Prime Video.

Kindle AI Can Answer Questions About What You're Reading, But Authors Can't Opt Out

(Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Even the most serious readers sometimes lose track of what's going on in a particular book. So, Amazon is rolling out a new feature on the Kindle iOS app that lets people use AI to ask questions about what they're reading. The problem: authors have no say in whether it's applied to their books or not. The Ask This Book feature allows users to highlight any passage from a book they've purchased or borrowed and ask questions about it without leaving the page. For example, it can fill readers in on plot details or explain the background of certain characters. Amazon didn't disclose exactly how many books work with Ask This Book, but says "thousands" of bestselling English-language books are included. The feature will roll out to physical Kindle devices and Android in 2026. However, the tool could prove controversial in today's hotly contested AI-copyright environment. In an interview with publishing-industry magazine PubLunch, spotted by book site Reactor, an Amazon spokesperson said: "To ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out." Amazon also reportedly failed to answer PubLunch's questions about what licensing rights it is using to enable the new tool, "nor did they elaborate on the technical details of the service and any protections involved." For example, it's unclear how Amazon plans to prevent AI hallucinations or whether the text could be used for AI training by large language models. If you're interested in trying the feature anyway, head to Ask This Book in the in-book menu, or simply highlight any passage as you read. You can then tap one of the suggested questions or type your own to get answers from Amazon's new tool -- and keep the conversation going with follow-up questions. In another potential plus for forgetful readers, Kindle is also introducing a Recaps feature. Amazon says this works much like the "Previously on..." segment before a TV show, providing a quick refresher on storylines and character arcs in Kindle books you own or have borrowed. The feature is already available on both Kindle devices and the Kindle app for iOS users in the US. To access it on a physical Kindle, look for the View Recaps button on the series page in your Kindle Library by clicking the three-dot menu within the series grouping. On the Kindle iOS app, the same option appears when you press and hold the series grouping.

Kindle's in-book AI assistant can answer all your questions without spoilers

If you're several chapters into a novel and forgot who a character was, Amazon is hoping its new Kindle feature will jog your memory without ever having to put the e-reader down. This feature, called Ask this Book, was announced during Amazon's hardware event in September, but is finally available for US users on the Kindle iOS app. According to Amazon, the feature can currently be found on thousands of English best-selling Kindle titles and "only reveals information up to your current reading position" for spoiler-free responses. To use it, you can highlight a passage in any book you've bought or borrowed and ask it questions about plot, characters or other crucial details, and the AI assistant will offer "immediate, contextual, spoiler-free information." You'll even be able to ask follow-up questions for more detail. While Ask this Book may be helpful to some Kindle readers, the feature touches on a major point of contention with authors and publishers. In response to Publishers Lunch, a daily newsletter for the publishing industry, an Amazon spokesperson said that, "To ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out." Other AI companies are already facing lawsuits claiming copyright infringement. Most recently, the New York Times and Chicago Tribune sued Perplexity, accusing the AI company of using its copyrighted works to train its LLMs. As for the Ask this Book feature, Amazon is already planning to expand it beyond the iOS app and will introduce it to Kindle devices and the Android OS app next year. Beyond this new feature, Amazon also introduced Recaps to Kindle devices and the iOS app for books in a series, which acts much like a TV show's "Previously on" roundup in between seasons. However, Amazon recently had to withdraw its AI-generated Video Recaps feature, so it might be worth double-checking the info you get from Recaps, too.

Amazon's "Ask this Book" feature is like an in-book chatbot for Kindle users

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. Editor's take: Amazon, like other Big Tech players riding the AI wave, is pushing chatbots and LLMs into as many products as possible. Even the Kindle app, designed for human-written content, is seeing experiments to show how AI can enhance the reading experience. Amazon recently launched Ask This Book (ATB), a new feature available to Kindle iOS app users. The tool leverages AI and chatbot technology designed to enhance the reading experience without revealing key plot points - at least in theory. Ask This Book answers questions about a title's plot, characters, and other details. Users interact with the feature like ChatGPT or other general-purpose chatbots, receiving information relevant to the pages they've read up to their current position. The feature functions as a custom reading assistant, offering instant answers on character relationships, themes, and other details. It can provide guidance on content the reader has already covered, helping users navigate complex plots or recall specific information without flipping back through the book. Some readers may prefer to avoid using ATB with familiar books, such as rereading Stephen King's IT or revisiting Lovecraft's Mythos stories. For these occasions, they might choose to experience the story uninterrupted, without leaning on AI guidance for context or already familiar plot details. Amazon spokesman Ale Iraheta confirmed to the Verge that ATB generates answers that are "non-shareable and non-copyable," accessible only to customers who have purchased or rented the specific Kindle book. The feature is turned on by default, and authors or publishers cannot opt out of it. Ask This Book is currently available in the US for "thousands" of English-language titles on the Kindle iOS app. Amazon plans to expand the feature to additional Kindle devices and Android next year, but the company has not announced support for international customers or other languages. The feature offers a "Recaps" option, available on Kindle devices and the iOS app. Ask This Book summarizes storylines and character development in a series. Amazon recently retired a similar feature for TV shows after the AI hallucinated key details about Fallout.

With New â€~Ask this Book’ Kindle Feature, Amazon Wants Lost Readers to Ask AI for Help

A new generative AI feature has been welded onto a product again: Amazon’s “Ask this Book†for Kindle readers, which is basically a little chatbot that will live inside the book you’re e-reading, capable of answering “Wait, when did that good guy become a bad guy?â€-type questions without making you go back and re-read the actual pages of the book a human author painstakingly wrote. It will roll out on Kindle devices as well as on Android next year. According to an Amazon blog post, you can “highlight any passage in a book you’ve bought or borrowed†and then ask questions “right on the page.†You get “instant, contextual, spoiler-free information,†about “plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements.†This is honestly a smart pitch to readers, irrespective of whether or not the feature is good. I recently got lazy and asked ChatGPT to refresh my memory about some characters in a book I was reading, and it told me about their eventual kidsâ€"but I didn’t even know they were romantically linked yet. A spoiler aversion-respecting chatbot could fix this mild annoyance, in theory. But AI and authors tend not to mix well (Disclosure: I’m an author whose book was in the controversial Books3 database, used as training data by Big Tech). In a post for Writer Beware, author and industry watchdog Victoria Strauss wrote that Amazon’s AI feature seems “to raise some rights concerns.†More notably, Amazon confirmed that participation isn’t optional. “To ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out,†an Amazon spokesperson told Publishers Lunch. To spell out one concern that Strauss and others are driving at: there’s an argument to be made that a chatbot output superimposed right onto the digital page is arguably making mini derivative worksâ€"which Amazon expressly denied to Publisher’s Lunch, saying “no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given.†An edition of a book with an index or glossary, or other added material for ease of reading would indeed be new material, and if a publisher wanted such a thing to exist, they would presumably have to draw up a new publishing contract with the author. However you feel about AI, this is clearly a way of sidestepping any such old fashioned publishing norms. But it seems Amazon also sprang this on authors and publishers without warning them, which is a separate issue. Publisher’s Lunch reached out to agents and publishing executives and found that most of them had never heard of “Ask this Book.†As a writer, it’s starting to feel pretty normal to learn very late that my already feeble sense of control over how my work is used by AI was once again eroded long ago without my knowledge, and that there’s nothing I can do about it at this point.

Amazon adds AI chatbot to the Kindle app which offers "spoiler-free" answers about your ebooks

Amazon is rolling out a new generative AI feature for the iOS version of its Kindle app, the digital version of one of the best eReaders. The new "Ask this Book" tool is a chatbot that will provide "spoiler-free" answers about the book's plot, characters, and more. The AI feature was announced in a blog post proclaiming that the bot is available for "thousands of English-language best selling" books. . Amazon is pitching the AI chatbot as an "expert reading assistant" that makes it "easier for you stay immersed in your books." As you're reading, you can highlight a portion of the book to get started with the bot. Ask this Book can seemingly provide a broad array of information from plot details and character relationships to thematic elements, but the company claims it will only reveal information up to your current reading position. Amazon also announced another AI-based feature, "Recaps", which is supposed to give you a refresher about book series you're reading while you wait for the next book or when you've taken a prolonged break. According to Amazon, when you highlight a section of your book in the Kindle app you should see a new "Ask" button in the menu. Tapping that button will let you type in a prompt before being placed in a chatbox with the AI. Additionally, some pre-made suggested queries will be available if you didn't have a question prepared. The feature is rolling out to the Kindle iOS app now. As mentioned, the Android Kindle app won't receive this feature until next year. Additionally, Amazon says it will come to Kindle devices in 2026, though a specific timeline wasn't provided. When it comes to artificial intelligence, there has been a lot of concern about rights and AI's effects on authors. Most every AI company has been accused of copyright infringement, and Anthropic settled a class action lawsuit with authors earlier this fall. Insider publication Publisher's Lunch (via Writer Beware) highlighted the feature earlier this week with concern over the AI bot generating information without permission or rights. The site apparently did not receive a definitive answer from Amazon about the company's process regarding the AI bot or what rights it relies on. They did learn that the feature is always on and authors and publishers can not opt out. "The primary focus has been on preventing unpermissioned AI training, but with the technology embedding itself at warp speed in all aspects of the book business, the rights implications are expanding just as fast," Writer Beware notes. This isn't the first time the company has done something controversial to the Kindle platform this year. Back in February Amazon took away the ability to download Kindle books and back them up on a PC using USB transfer. Let us know if you believe Ask this Book infringes or will it be a helpful tool for readers?

Kindle App Now Includes AI Assistant for Character and Plot Questions

Amazon has added a new feature to its Kindle app on iOS that uses artificial intelligence to answers questions about the book you're reading, the company has announced. Available in the U.S. only, "Ask This Book" is described as an "expert reading assistant" that allows users to highlight any passage in what they are reading and ask questions about plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements. The feature's answers are spoiler-free, revealing information only up to the current reading position. The in-book chatbot is available in books by default, and authors cannot opt out. "The feature uses technology, including AI, to provide instant, spoiler-free answers to customers' questions about what they're reading," Amazon told PubLunch. "Ask this Book provides short answers based on factual information about the book which are accessible only to readers who have purchased or borrowed the book and are non-shareable and non-copyable." With the latest Kindle app update installed, readers in the U.S. can find the feature in the in-book menu, or simply highlight any passage and tap "Ask" in the contextual pop-up menu. Ask This Book is currently limited to English-language books. Amazon plans to add the feature to Kindle devices and Android OS next year.

Kindle's new ask this book feature lets readers get answers without leaving the page

Amazon is trying to solve the biggest headache of reading a long novel: forgetting who everyone is but being too scared to Google it. The company just launched Ask this Book, a new tool for the Kindle iOS app in the U.S. that acts like a spoiler-free guide, keeping you in the story without breaking your flow. What Happened: Kindle Gets an In-Book AI Reading Assistant Recommended Videos If you are reading on an iPhone, the Kindle app just got a lot smarter. Amazon quietly rolled out Ask this Book, which lets you query the text directly. Instead of closing the app to search the web, you can now highlight a confusing passage or pop open a menu to ask about plot points, character backstories, or specific themes. The killer feature here is the "spoiler guard." Amazon claims the AI only knows what you have read up to that exact page. It won't accidentally tell you that the friendly side character is actually the villain. It functions more like a reading buddy sitting next to you than a search engine, offering instant context for thousands of best-selling titles so you don't have to leave the app. You don't even have to come up with the questions yourself; the app suggests relevant ones automatically, though you can type in your own specific confusion if you need to. Why This Matters, Why You Should Care, and What's Next We have all been there. You are 300 pages deep, a character name pops up, and you have zero memory of who they are. Usually, looking them up online is a gamble -- one wrong click and the ending is ruined. This update fixes that anxiety. It keeps the help inside the book, letting you stay immersed instead of doom-scrolling through a wiki page. It pairs perfectly with another new feature called Recaps. Think of Recaps as the "Previously on..." segment of a TV show, but for books. If you are picking up a sequel after a year-long break, it gives you a quick refresher on the story arcs and characters so you aren't lost. That's already available on Kindle devices and iOS for supported series. For anyone who reads multiple books at once or takes long breaks between chapters, these tools are a game-changer. They remove the friction of "getting back into it." Looking ahead, Amazon isn't keeping this exclusive to iPhones forever. Plans are already in motion to bring Ask this Book to Android phones and actual Kindle e-readers next year. It's a clear signal that Amazon wants the Kindle to be more than just a screen - it wants it to be an active companion that ensures you actually finish the books you start.

The Kindle App Now Has Built-In AI, Because of Course It Does

Neither users, publishers, nor authors can opt out of the feature, which is now available on thousands of English-language books. It's 2025, so every piece of technology now needs to have an AI component. It doesn't matter if these AI features are useful (though some are), they just need to be there, however ham-fisted or useless they may seem -- though the line between those extremes often comes down to user preference. To that end, if you've ever been reading a book on the Kindle app and wished that you could ask your device a question about the text, Amazon has an AI bot for you. Last week, Amazon announced "Ask this Book," a new AI feature for the Kindle app. Now available on the iOS version of the app, it lets you ask Amazon's AI questions about whatever it is you're reading, whether you bought or borrowed the title. You can highlight a selection from the text to include in you're queries, and ask questions relating the story's plot, characters, relationships, and theme. According to Amazon, all answers will be contextual, presumably meaning they'll all be related to the text at hand, and importantly, all answers will be spoiler-free. That should help avoid the classic mistake of googling a question you have about a book you're reading and spoiling a coming plot twist or character death. Amazon says Ask this Book is currently active for "thousands" of books written in English. As noted, as of this writing the feature is only live in the iOS version of the app, but Amazon is working on bringing it to the Android app, as well as Kindle devices, next year. If this sounds like the type of feature you'd be interested in, great! If you don't care for this feature, either as a reader who doesn't want AI getting in the way of their books, a publisher who doesn't want Amazon training its AI on their IP, or a teacher who might see this as a potential cheating opportunity, there's bad news: Once Amazon makes Ask this Book available for any given title, it's permanently available, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. That comes directly from an Amazon spokesperson, who told Publishers Lunch, "[t]o ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out." That response bothers me for two reasons. One, it's always frustrating when a company introduces a new feature lwithout giving users the option to turn it off. I don't use Apple Intelligence, but I appreciate that Apple lets me turn it off. Meta, on the other hand, forces me to contend with Meta AI, even though I never use it. Amazon seems to be attending the Meta school of user design. But what's more, it seems wild to me that authors and publishers don't get a say as to whether this AI bot gets to be active on their books -- especially retroactively. It'd even be one thing if authors had to opt-in in order to put their books on the Kindle platform going forward. But to enable it on "thousands" of titles made available before Ask this Book was ever a thing is, to me, disrespectful to authors and publishers, to say the least. Interestingly, Amazon dodged questions from Publishers Lunch concerning licensing rights around Ask this Book, as well as protections for users, which is troubling given generative AI has a habit of hallucinating -- or, in other words, making things up completely. Sure, when it's working as intended, the AI can help readers understand things they're confused about, but there's a real chance that the AI will misinterpret questions, misrepresent the text, or straight up lie, which could negatively impact a reader's experience of the work, with potential fallout for both the author and the publisher. While you won't see this feature yet on your Kindle, you will encounter it in the Kindle app. You can either access it from the menu in any book where the feature is available, or by highlighting text in said book. Once you do, Ask this Book will present a list of questions it thinks you might be interested in asking. If none of them do it for you, you can formulate your own questions, and ask followups after the bot answers.

Amazon launches Ask this Book AI feature for Kindle iOS app

Amazon has officially launched "Ask this Book," an AI-powered feature for the Kindle iOS app designed to help readers recall character details and plot points without leaving the book. Announced during Amazon's September hardware event, the tool is now available for thousands of English best-sellers and operates with a strict "spoiler-free" constraint, only accessing information up to the user's current reading page. By highlighting a passage, users can ask questions about the narrative and receive immediate, contextual answers, including the ability to ask follow-up queries. The rollout has introduced significant friction with the publishing industry, as Amazon confirmed the feature is "always on" with no option for authors or publishers to opt their titles out of the AI processing. This mandatory inclusion arrives during a period of heightened legal scrutiny over AI training data, exemplified by recent copyright lawsuits filed by the New York Times and Chicago Tribune against AI firm Perplexity. While currently limited to iOS, Amazon plans to expand "Ask this Book" to Android and Kindle e-reader devices next year. The company also introduced "Recaps," a feature for book series that summarizes events from previous installments, similar to a "previously on" segment for television shows.

Amazon just added a controversial AI feature to the Kindle app

Summary Amazon rolls out Ask This Book feature to Kindle on iOS. The feature lets readers get spoiler-free answers to questions about the book they're reading. Another new AI-powered feature, Story So Far, will launch in 2026 and give spoiler-free summaries to help you catch up in a book. Amazon has started rolling out a new AI feature to the Kindle app on iOS. Called Ask This Book, the recently announced feature lets you ask questions about the book you're reading. The answers are supposedly spoiler-free. If you're the type to read multiple books at once or take long breaks from reading, Ask This Book could come in handy. For example, if you forget an important piece of information about a location or character, you can use the feature to find the answer for you, rather than hunting through the text or risking spoilers on Google. Ask This Book is available now in the excellent Kindle for iOS app. It will be brought to the Android app and Kindle devices (like the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition) early next year. To use the feature, you can highlight a passage of text and select Ask in the pop-up menu. You can also access it from the book's menu. The first of two new AI features coming to Kindle Amazon has another new AI feature slated to come to Kindle in 2026, called Story So Far. As the name implies, this feature will help you catch up on the book you're reading by providing spoiler-free summaries of what's happened up to your current point. This feature should be excellent for those books you've started and then wandered away from. The two features are similar, but they should meet two slightly different needs. Story So Far is clearly geared towards situations where you pick up a book after a while and have no recollection of what's happened. Ask This Book is more granular and great for quick answers to specific questions, such as "Who is this character, again?" Not everyone is a fan of the new feature AI fatigue is real Opinions about these new features are sharply divided. Depending on who you ask, this is either an outstanding addition to the Kindle experience or a complete waste of time and resources. Some users see the merit and feel it will be a useful tool, seeing it as an improved form of the existing X-Ray feature. Others see it as more intrusion of AI in unwanted places, or feel they'd rather have more useful features. A lot of the backlash seems more directed at AI in general than at the Ask This Book feature, something we've noticed more of in online spaces over the last several months. To use Ask This Book, simply update your Kindle app to the latest version. The feature is only available in select books in the US for now. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2024) 9/10 Resolution 300 ppi Storage 32 GB Screen Size 7" Audio Via Bluetooth The 2024 Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is Amazon's top-end black-and-white Kindle. It features a 7" screen, IPX8 water resistance, and 12-week battery life. Compared to the regular Kindle Paperwhite, the Signature Edition adds quality-of-life features like more storage (32 GB), wireless charging, and automatic brightness adjustments. Expand Collapse

Amazon's New AI Tool for Kindle App Will Let You Ask Questions About Books

The feature will be rolled out to Kindle devices and Android in 2026 Amazon is rolling out a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature for its Kindle app, the company's mobile app that provides access to its large e-book library. Dubbed Ask this Book, it is currently being rolled out to Kindle for iOS. The Seattle-based tech giant said the feature is designed to let users ask questions about their current reads or previously purchased or borrowed books, and receive answers that do not spoil the story for them. Notably, last month, the company announced a new translation service for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors. Kindle App on iOS Brings AI-Powered Ask This Book Feature In a press release, the tech giant announced and detailed the new AI feature for Kindle users. Ask this Book is currently available to the iOS app; however, the company has confirmed that it will be rolled out to Android and Kindle devices next year. The AI-powered feature essentially lets users ask questions about the book or a chapter of a book directly, or highlight a passage or a sentence and ask more specific questions about it. In each case, Amazon claims, the answers are spoiler-free, ensuring the responses do not contain any information beyond the point they have read, or outside of what is being asked. The tool is aimed at helping users find instant resolution to their confusion while reading a book, or to refresh their memory when they go back to a book after some time has passed. At the time of rollout, the feature is only available to users in the US, and it supports a large catalogue of English-language books. Non-English books are not supported at this time. The company has also not confirmed when the feature will be rolled out to more regions. Amazon says users can ask the AI tool about plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements without having to stop their reading flow. "All responses provide immediate, contextual, spoiler-free information," the post adds. To get started, Kindle for iOS users can find the tool in the in-book menu or see it in the options after highlighting some text. Users can either type their own questions or use one of the AI-generated suggestions. The tool also lets users send follow-up questions.

Kindle Becomes Interactive as Amazon Experiments With AI-Powered 'Ask This Book'

Amazon Tests 'Ask This Book' AI Feature on Kindle, Letting Readers Query Books in Real Time Amazon is testing interactive reading on Kindle. The e-commerce firm is reportedly rolling out a new AI-powered feature called 'Ask This Book.' The add-on lets readers ask questions about the contents of a book directly in their Kindle app. According to publishing industry magazine PubLunch, the feature lets users select any passage from a book and query it in real time, without exiting the page. Readers can enquire about plot points, characters, or specific sections and receive AI-generated responses within a chat-style interface.