Amazon is giving Kindle readers new methods to rem...

Amazon’s Kindle e-readers have obtained a sequence of notable updates this yr, specializing in enhancing the general studying expertise. This contains options reminiscent of new spacing choices for characters, phrases, and paragraphs in e-books, in addition to a brand new accessibility device referred to as Assistive Reader, which may flip your e-books into read-along audiobooks.

Just lately, at its fall {hardware} occasion, Amazon unveiled its new Kindle Scribe lineup. Quietly, alongside that announcement, the e-commerce big revealed two new AI-powered studying instruments coming quickly to each the Kindle iOS app and its e-readers: Story So Far and Ask This E book.

Just like the Kindle Recaps function Amazon launched earlier this yr, each options are designed to assist readers keep related to what they’re studying. Story So Far will enable you to atone for a e-book you are studying, whereas the Ask This E book function will assist reply questions you’ll have about characters or scenes in a e-book.

You may have to attend to strive Amazon’s new Kindle studying options

How efficient they are going to be stays unsure

If you happen to’re questioning while you’ll get the possibility to check out these new AI-powered Kindle options, Amazon says they are going to be out there first on the Kindle iOS app “later this yr” and on Kindle units “early subsequent yr.”

Whilst you nonetheless have to attend to strive these options, Amazon has defined within the meantime how they are going to work. As I discussed earlier, Story So Far will enable you to atone for a e-book you are studying. Nonetheless, it would solely summarize as much as the purpose you have learn. So when you’re anxious about utilizing it and getting spoiled, you will not. This function particularly looks as if will probably be particularly useful for books you may need stepped away from or for titles with excessively lengthy and complex storylines, the place a fast refresher might help you get again on top of things rapidly.

Ask This E book is sort of completely different from Story So Far. Whereas it is an AI-powered function that allows you to ask your e-book questions, it might not work precisely as you may anticipate. It is not like Google Gemini or ChatGPT, the place you kind one thing in and get a solution about it. In accordance to Amazon, “Ask this E book will allow you to spotlight any passage of textual content whereas studying a e-book and get spoiler-free solutions to questions on issues like a personality’s motive or the importance of a scene.”

To me, that does not seem to be you are actually asking questions; moderately, you are highlighting passages from a e-book you are curious or confused about, and probably getting a solution that could be useful.

In fact, each Story So Far and Ask This E book are AI-powered, so whether or not they’re truly helpful or not will rely completely on how efficient and correct Amazon’s AI engine is. Nonetheless, if it is something like Kindle Recaps, an AI-powered summarization function already out there on Kindle e-readers and the iOS app, it might be overseen by Amazon moderators. When Kindle Recaps launched, Amazon acknowledged that the recaps “precisely replicate e-book content material” (through Good E Reader), so hopefully, the identical might be true for each of those options.

By way of what books you’ll use Story So Far and Ask This E book on, Amazon states will probably be out there for “1000’s of Kindle books within the US,” whether or not you have got bought or borrowed them. Each of Amazon’s new AI-powered Kindle options might be accessible on the Kindle iOS app later this yr and on Kindle e-readers, together with the brand new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, early subsequent yr.