AI Tools Let Readers Chat with Their Books

A wave of new AI tools now lets readers ask books questions as they read, turning static text into something closer to a conversation.

Sinai.ai, a platform currently in testing, pairs an e-book or audiobook with an AI chatbot that answers questions about a character’s motives, historical context or a book’s underlying ideas.

“You are dealing with a book as if it is a living object — it’s totally different,” said Sinai.ai CEO Ahmed Kamel.

French startup My Smart Book launched a similar chatbot in mid-April, drawing only on a book’s actual text rather than outside information.

Amazon has also entered the space. Its audiobook company, Audible, launched “Ask a Question” last fall, letting listeners pause mid-story, ask a question, hear the answer, and resume where they left off.

An Audible spokesperson said the feature is designed to answer questions specifically tied to the audiobook a listener is currently engaged with, adding that such tools could make books more appealing to a wider range of listeners.

Amazon’s Kindle offers a comparable feature called “Ask this Book,” while voice-tech company ElevenLabs built “ElevenReader Voice Chat” to turn books into two-way conversations.

Who Gets Paid Remains a Thorny Question

The bigger challenge is determining who gets paid, or gives permission, for AI to use their books this way.

Sinai.ai says it only offers titles that are either in the public domain or approved by the author, estate or publisher.

Another platform, iChatbook, avoids the issue differently by never handing over a book’s actual text.

“Our chat book is not a library of books — it’s a library of concepts and ideas and facts,” said founder Brian Yang, who believes the approach sidesteps copyright concerns while helping students grasp ideas faster.

Not every platform is as cautious. Tools such as Myreader, Google’s NotebookLM and BookWorm AI let users upload books regardless of copyright status.

Sinai.ai says it has built a system called “AI rights” to pay authors and publishers when chatbots use their work, and claims to be in talks with several major US publishers.

“I can clearly say at least that we are in active communications with almost four of the top five,” Kamel said.

However, the Authors Guild criticised Amazon’s “Ask this Book” tool in December, saying it operates without licensing or opt-out options for authors and publishers.