More than a decade ago, Amazon’s first Kindle e-readers helped define a new device category and a new way to read books. Even if you’re a diehard paperback reader, it’s hard to deny the convenience of being able to carry around hundreds or thousands of books on a single device whose battery lasts for weeks.

Perhaps because the main selling point of the Kindle is so simple, Amazon has struggled to meaningfully improve the product over the years, with new hardware not fundamentally changing the attraction of the e-reader.

But now AI is here.

Amazon has announced an update to the Kindle app for iOS (that’s iPhone and iPad) that introduces a new software tool called ‘Ask this Book’, which promises “instant spoiler-free answers to questions about your books,” according to Amazon.

In a press release, the tech giant confirmed the feature is rolling out in the US “for thousands of English-language books”, and The Verge reported that Amazon spokesperson Ale Iraheta told Publishers Lunch that the answers are “non-shareable and non-copyable” and that “there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out”.

The feature will only work if you have purchased or rented a book (Kindle users in the US can rent books using the OverDrive service on Kindle, which is not available to UK users), and the feature is always on, according to Iraheta.

“Highlight any passage in a book you’ve bought or borrowed, and Ask this Book allows you to ask questions about what you’re reading, right on the page,” Amazon said.

“This feature serves as your expert reading assistant, instantly answering questions about plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements without disrupting your reading flow. All responses provide immediate, contextual, spoiler-free information.”

The retailer added that recalling plot points and characters “after a long reading break or a wait between new releases” is a challenge, and this tool is designed to help with that.

Amazon said the feature will roll out to Kindle devices and the Kindle app for Android at some stage next year, but did not comment on when Ask this Book might arrive outside of the US or in languages other than English. But with some AI features on UK Kindles already, it’s probably only a matter of time until Ask this Book hits these shores.

Amazon has pushed into using AI on Kindle devices already, especially on the Kindle Scribe where the software can turn handwritten notes into text or summarise notes into bullet points.

But with a push into summarisation of copyrighted, published books, there may be some concern about how Amazon is processing. As Publishers Lunch points out, Amazon appears to have introduced this feature “without permission” of the publishers or authors whose works the tool can immediately be used with.

I did not personally enjoy AI’s introduction on the Kindle Scribe. Amazon on one hand promotes the expensive large screened Kindle as a reading and productivity device to draw or take notes with no distractions. To then add AI features to that seems to contradict the idea of a distraction-free device, while summarisation tools seemed, to me, like AI for AI’s sake.

Amazon now adding Ask this Book without publishers’ permission feels like the company testing the legal AI waters while also trying to add new features to the Kindle – something it has always struggled to do.