Imagine a world where you can ask a book a question as you read it.
It’s one step in a wave of new AI tools that allow readers to do just that.
“You’re dealing with a book as if it were a living object — it’s completely different,” says Ahmed Kamel, CEO of Sinai.ai, a platform now in testing.
With these tools, users get access to an e-book or audiobook along with an AI chatbot. Confused about a character’s motives or historical setting? Just ask.
Readers can delve into a character’s psychology, historical context, or a philosophical concept—no special research required.
French startup My Smart Book launched something similar in mid-April. Like Sinai, his chatbot is based only on the actual text of the book – no extraneous information.
Even the bookselling giant Amazon is in on it. Her audiobook company, Audible, launched a feature called “Ask a Question” last fall.
In the middle of listening, you can tap a button, ask your question, hear the answer, and then pick up the story where you left off.
“We’re excited about the potential of AI-powered features to improve the customer experience,” an Audible spokesperson told AFP, adding that the tool is “designed to answer questions specifically about the audiobook the listener is currently engaged with.”
The company thinks it can also attract new fans, making the books “more accessible and palatable to a wider range of listeners.”
Amazon’s Kindle has its own version: Ask This Book, described as an “expert reading assistant” that answers questions about plot and characters “without interrupting your reading flow.”
ElevenLabs — a rising star in AI voice technology — built ElevenReader Voice Chat, which it says “turns any book into a two-way conversation.”
– Who gets paid? –
But the question of who gets paid or has permission to develop this new reading superpower is a thorny one.
Sinai.ai says it only offers books that are either in the public domain or where the author, their estate, or the publisher signed off first.
Another company, iChatbook, does things differently.
“Our chat book isn’t a library of books—it’s a library of concepts, ideas, and facts,” says founder Brian Yang.
Instead of delivering the actual text, AI pulls out key ideas and explains them in simpler language — something Yang thinks could be huge for students.
And since it never quotes the book directly, it avoids a lot of copyright headaches.
However, not every platform is so careful. Some, like Myreader, allow users to upload any book, whether or not it’s under copyright, and then connect it to an AI interface.
Google’s wildly popular NotebookLM—recently rebranded as Gemini Notebook—doesn’t check copyright, nor does BookWorm AI, a ChatGPT-based tool that calls itself a “book companion.”
Sinai.ai says it has built something it calls “AI rights” – a system that pays authors and publishers when their work is used by a chatbot.
The company also claims to be in talks with some of the “Big Five” US publishers: Hachette, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Macmillan.
“I can clearly say at least that we are in active communication with almost four of the top five,” Kamel said.
“We’ve signed a lot of publishers in the US, big names in the Middle East. Things are moving very quickly.”
He even thinks technology can make people re-read old favorites: “Now is the time to maybe dive into areas that were really hard to do in the past.”
None of the Big Five publishers responded to AFP’s questions about their AI plans.
Not everyone is excited about the technology.
In December, the Society of Authors criticized Amazon’s Ask this Book tool, saying it was “not licensed, doesn’t bring in new revenue, and doesn’t allow publishers and authors to choose, much less choose,” adding that it set “a dangerous precedent.”
