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Authors Guild Raises Concerns About Kindle’s New “Ask This Book” AI Feature

Artificial Intelligence

December 23, 2025

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The Authors Guild has significant concerns with Amazon’s new “Ask this Book” feature, which has been available since December 11, 2025, on certain Kindle devices and the Kinde iOS app. It is the most recent in a suite of new AI Kindle features, which also includes a “Recaps” feature summarizing prior books in a series and expanded AI-based translation. The Guild is looking into whether the feature, which was added without permission from publishers or authors, might infringe authors’ and publishers’ rights.

Ask this Book, which is slated for a wider rollout in 2026, allows readers to query an AI chatbot about books they have purchased or borrowed. So far there is no way for publishers or authors to opt their books out of the feature, though as of this writing the feature is not available for all ebooks. It allows a reader to highlight text and click on an “Ask” icon to ask the AI to “explain” the selected text or enter their own question in the chatbot. All responses are generated from the book itself. After complaints that the chatbot was providing spoilers, the application appears to be limited to text already read, and responses now seem to refer to the selected text. When first released, the feature answered questions about the book as a whole and provided analysis, but is more limited now, often answering that it does not have the information sought.

The Guild is concerned that Ask this Book turns books into searchable, interactive products akin to enhanced ebooks or annotated editions—a new format for which rights should be specifically negotiated—and, given Amazon’s stronghold on ebook retail, it could usurp the burgeoning licensing market for interactive AI-enabled ebooks and audiobooks.

Amazon’s Response

We reached out to Amazon with our concerns and they reported to that “The feature only uses content from the book as a prompt which is not retained or used to train the underlying AI model.” An Amazon spokesperson explained that Amazon considers the feature to be “a natural language expansion of the search functionality that already exists in Kindle apps and for which no license is required.” Amazon further reasons that “readers have been asking these questions through internet searches for years and that this feature is more native, spoiler-free, and helps customers keep reading as opposed to coming out of the book, which is the case today with all other ways to answer questions about the book you’re reading.”

The Guild’s Take

We do not entirely agree with this depiction. In creating a chat feature that allows readers to ask questions about a book—including analysis and summaries—Amazon is possibly creating a derivate use, not a mere search function. Amazon has confirmed that it is using a “standalone” instance of an AI model to answer user queries and that its responses are based solely on the text of the book purchased by the user. This may suggest that Ask this Book uses RAG (retrieval augmented generation) technology, though we don’t have confirmation of this. RAG uses, for which there is a growing market, are typically licensed. The most common application of RAG technology is to make the output of LLMs more accurate in AI-based search engines.

Licensing for in-book chatbots and other interactive book experiences such as AI-enabled fan fiction has promised to bring in new income for authors and publishers to replace the inevitable losses from AI-generated books drowning out human-authored books. The Guild has been working with AI companies and publishers to help foster licensed applications for new interactive consumer book experiences—where authors and publishers can opt in (or not) and receive additional income from these uses. Amazon’s “Ask the Book” feature, while limited, is not licensed, brings in no new income, and does not allow publishers and authors to opt out, much less opt in. This sets a dangerous precedent for the future of licensing for AI features, especially given Amazon’s ownership of most of the ebook market.

We have shared our concerns with Amazon, and appreciate the company’s willingness to share information and hear us out, as well as the tweaks it has made since launch. Still, it is our position that uses such as “Ask this Book” and other AI-enhancements to books must be licensed and compensated. These are entirely new uses that fall outside of the rights granted under most publishing contracts, retail agreements, and platform terms of services. We believe Amazon should move to a permissioned, paid model and urge it to do so.  

We will continue to keep you posted on further developments with AI-enhanced books in Kindle and elsewhere.