Amazon has rolled out this experimental new AI tool called “Ask My Book.” And then this feature has instantly reignited a huge fight between authors and the publishing giant about who actually controls a writer’s words in the age of generative AI.
The thing is, the tool lets readers ask questions about a specific book. The AI then spits back answers that summarize or paraphrase passages from the text. Amazon is pushing it as a feature to help “discovery.”
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The Trust and Consent Breakdown
For many writers, this is a total breach.
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Derivative Content: Authors argue that the system creates derivative content on demand. The AI is essentially repackaging a book’s ideas, which could directly undermine both their royalties and their control over their intellectual property.
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Contract Loopholes: Here’s the kicker: Amazon says participation is governed by existing publishing agreements. But critics say those contracts were written way before generative AI was even a concept. They definitely never contemplated a conversational system that could interpret and reproduce a book’s meaning on demand, or nothing.
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The Philosophical Question: The core issue isn’t just legal; it’s philosophical: Who owns the meaning extracted from a book once an AI is allowed to interpret and reproduce it? Let’s be real, the lines of ownership are totally blurred now.
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Erosion of Boundaries and Commercial Fears
This “Ask My Book” tool isn’t seen as an isolated experiment. Authors’ groups already have major lawsuits against tech companies over using copyrighted texts to train Large Language Models (LLMs). This new feature just feels like another step in the erosion of creative ownership boundaries.
There are also massive commercial anxieties:
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Undermining Sales: Writers fear that if readers can simply query a book for key arguments, themes, or conclusions, they might be less inclined to buy or fully read it. Why pay when you can get the summary?
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Misrepresentation: The risk of AI summaries flattening nuance or distorting an author’s true intent is huge. And then that distortion is still implicitly or explicitly attributed to the original author.
Amazon has tried to reassure everyone, stressing that the tool doesn’t provide verbatim excerpts and that authors can “opt out in certain cases.” They’re framing it as an enhancement, like a search feature. But for the literary community, those assurances fall seriously short.
The entire controversy highlights the central unresolved issue: Should consent for AI usage be explicit and granular, or are broad platform agreements enough? Until that question is settled, expect major resistance from the creators who actually write the books.
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