Amazon’s new Kindle function is likely one of the first helpful AI options I’ve seen

Amazon is rolling out a brand-new function throughout its Kindle e-reader line within the US: a ‘Recaps’ software for shortly getting on top of things on whichever digital e-book you have been selecting away at.

Particularly, Recaps makes use of a mix of artificial intelligence (GenAI) and Amazon moderators to offer storyline and character arc refreshers on a per-book foundation. These brief recaps work throughout each bought and borrowed Kindle ebooks, as long as the piece of literary work in query is written within the English language.

“By including a brand new stage of comfort to sequence studying, the Recaps function permits readers to dive deeper into complicated worlds and characters with out dropping the enjoyment of discovery, all whereas making certain an uninterrupted studying expertise throughout each style,” says Amazon in a blog post.

Based on the corporate, the brand new Recaps function is now broadly accessible throughout all Kindle gadgets inside the US. The iOS and iPadOS cell Kindle app shall be up to date to include the function “quickly,” however there is not any phrase on if and when the Android model of the app shall be up to date so as to add help.

Amazon Kindle

Amazon’s first-party Kindle app for downloading and studying all of your favourite ebooks throughout your cell gadgets.

This new Kindle Recaps function represents a genuinely helpful AI use case

I simply hope Amazon’s AI tech has the chops to ship passable abstract outcomes

Pocket-lint / Amazon

Till now, I have been pretty important of most purposes and have units that depend on artifical intelligence to get the job performed. Whether or not we’re speaking about agentic (suppose: digital assistant bots) or GenAI (suppose: generative picture creation instruments) merchandise, I’ve struggled to include AI into my every day workflow to any significant diploma.

Each from time to time, nevertheless, I will run right into a hyper-specific AI answer that merely clicks for me. Lately, these have included Apple’s excellent Clean Up tool, in addition to Google’s fantastic Pixel Call Screen feature. Whereas I’ve but to attempt it out for myself, I’ve a hunch that Amazon’s new Racaps function for Kindle will fall into this coveted class for me.

Amazon likens Recaps to the “Beforehand on…” phase earlier than a TV present, and I feel that is an apt comparability. As a gradual and on-again-off-again reader, I are likely to lose observe of plot factors and sure character developments once I lastly hunker right down to proceed a e-book wherever I left off. Assuming Recaps’ AI and human moderation combo is reasonably accurate and in a position to ship stable summaries, I can see myself utilizing the function repeatedly,

From my perspective, AI instruments ought to work within the background, and they need to resolve issues proactively and with out the necessity for a lot consumer enter. They should not purpose to unravel issues that do not exist, and they need to seamlessly combine into current workflows with out a steep studying curve. At first blush, Amazon’s Recaps function seems to suit the invoice.

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Unsurprisingly, Amazon is wholeheartedly embracing AI

The corporate’s new Alexa+ digital assistant is infused with synthetic intelligence

Amazon

It ought to come as no shock that Amazon is trying to infuse synthetic intelligence into its Kindle e-reader ecosystem. The corporate seems to be all-in on AI, embracing the tech in its recently announced next-gen Alexa+ digital assistant.

Huge tech firms from throughout the trade are vying for a slice of the AI pie, regardless of considerations over waning shopper curiosity ranges, and the opportunity of a dot-com-style bubble-bursting state of affairs going down in some unspecified time in the future.

Amazon’s AI prowess has but to be totally put by its paces — whether or not we’re speaking about Alexa+ or the brand new Recaps function for Kindle, the corporate is definitely working in a cut-throat market. Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, and others are all closely invested in cracking open the buyer AI market through large language models (LLMs) and the like.

I am nonetheless not satisfied that chatbots or generative image-creator purposes are the revelation tech firms make them out to be. Smaller-scale instruments like Kindle Recaps, then again, are precisely the form of sprinkling of AI that I feel prospects will truly make use of and respect.

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