AI might undermine one of the better alternatives to the Kindle

Kobo, a RAKUTEN subsidiary that sells electronic books and lissels, has built its name on the more open version adapted to Amazon Kindle authors. However, a recent change in the self-publishing activities of the company A fears that the reputation will change. Last month, the company updated its Its publication platform, which opened the door to AI’s features on the platform. With this new contractual language that entered into force on June 28, the authors do not seem clearer on what it will mean for their future on Kobo.

For authors who have not (or have not withdrawn) the traditional edition And Offer a way to sell books without the need for representation or a publishing offer. If they can provide their work and the information necessary to make a store page – and have the will to serve not only as an author but of marketing – they have everything they need to sell their books.

Accepting to sell on one of these platforms is delivered with a list of conditions. The most important thing is the distribution of sales. If an author sells his novel for $ 2.99 or more on Kobo Writing Life, he keeps 70% of what he earns. On the direct publishing platform Kindle direct considerably larger, there are two fees of fees – 35% and 70% – but the two have a confusing some of which can considerably reduce the revenues of the authors. The calculation of costs in relation to the exposure means that the authors develop solid preferences for the platform they choose. But the conditions of use under which their work is published is also important – and apparently subject to change with little warning.

Engadget spoke with three authors who were surprised by Kobo’s decision to experiment with AI. All noticed that the company had published new service conditions due to a simple banner notification in the Kobo Writing Life dashboard. Even now, a month after the conditions are changed, the company is unable to clarify how the new conditions would apply to existing work. There is also no way for the authors to withdraw. If someone on Kobo is categorically against any use of AI, its best and only option is to stop publishing there, and probably withdraw their existing work from the platform.

The authors who we talked about were surprised that Kobo did not contact the changes offered in advance, but also that the company chose to work with AI. “I appreciate their transparency by being frank on their use of AI,” wrote Michelle Manus, fantastic author of the Kobo platform, in E-mail. “What I think they have largely underestimated is the extent to which their user base does not like AI.”

The new Kobo terms are explicit by saying that the company does not plan to use the work of the authors to form a generative AI. However, it reserves the right to use “artificial intelligence, automatic learning, depth learning algorithms or similar technologies” to “read, analyze and treat” for a variety of non-training purposes, in particular:

• “Improve the discovery of work” with the marking and recommendations of targeted customers

• “Evaluation of the relevance of the work” for sale in the Kobo store

• “Generation of resources” such as “creation of keywords, promotional content, targeted advertisements, customer engagement strategies and other documents”

• “Provide summary, reading assistance and accessibility features”

The authors challenged the apparent lack of appeal provided to them. What happens if a work is incorrectly marked as a genre when its author thinks that it is more directly right? Or if the “promotional material” that Kobo generates understands a kind of hallucination? The biggest problem for the scriptwriters to which Engadget spoke was the potential for Kobo to deploy summary generated by AI-AI. Amazon implemented Using a generative AI to help readers return to a series or remember where they were in a novel, and some authors have already found examples of the company of the company

“We would have immediately disappeared:” Ah, okay, we see what you are trying to do, but we do not think that the thing you suggest will work to solve the problem you are trying to solve, “said Delilah Waan, fantastic author and creator of Youtube. Since self-published authors tend to be more sensitive to their audiences, Relationship. “The authors frequently get readers’ setbacks on the intrigue choices, and I can only imagine the levels to which they receive incorrect summary of what happened in a book,” wrote Manus.

All the authors to which Engadget spoke admired Kobo’s attempts to treat complaints in public. On Bluesky, the CEO of the company Michael Tamblyn posted Enter the logic of including an AI clause in the terms of the company. Essentially, Tamblyn wrote, Kobo tries to facilitate the connection of readers with authors and to rationalize the moderation process that goes in the maintenance of the Kobo store, while avoiding trampling on copyright. “We are completely not interested in creating new content using the authors’ books, and doing nothing that would allow us to do so,” wrote Tamblyn. “And we don’t want someone else to do it either because we are selling books and we would like to be able to do it.”

Accept not to train a generative AI with an author’s work is what all professional writers have been encouraged to demand publishers by a professional organization that advocates writers and is currently participating in A trial against Openai. By choosing not to form a generative AI on the books, Kobo starts on the right foot. The dubious nature of what the equipment is powered by an AI model always leaves many questions. “Keep in mind, all the models at the moment are illegally formed, and I mean all the big llm [Large Language Models]”Mary Rasenberg, the CEO of the authors guild,” said. ” Thus, they can use an AI system which is not one of the large LLMs, but whatever the system they use may be based on one of the large LLMs. “”

Kobo did not respond to a request for information on the LLM he plans to use. For the work that could be poorly classified or poorly labeled, the company has encouraged the authors to contact them via its assistance email, which, according to the authors, has been sensitive to complaints so far. The company says that it has not started to test what it describes as a “beta functionality” to generate a “personalized summary” in the Kobo application. He notes that he is “not interested in making entire summaries of the books”. Instead, Kobo plans to make his summary specific to each reader, about 150 words in length depending on the pages they read during their last reading session and the quotes they highlighted.

Ebook platforms adopt a cautious approach to AI largely. Authors who publish via the Apple Books platform can to have generated from their work, but this is completely optional. The Barnes & Noble press platform currently does not offer AI products. Amazon’s summons are currently the most invasive use of AI on the Ebook markets and the authors Among them. “No matter how much money we earn from Amazon. We all hate to face it,” said Waan. She clearly said that the authors of self-publishing are afraid to change Kobo because he currently has friendly responses to most Amazon products. “I cannot describe how much we want Kobo to succeed, as if we are approaching them,” she said.

Each company seems eager to continue to push the limits of the place and how it can implement the invasive IA. Waan’s hope is now that Kobo engages in a sort of open forum with the authors on its uses offered for technology. “I think it’s really difficult to decide, as an author,” will I shoot my books? “” Said Waan. “Because the minute you shoot your books is a headache, because you have to update all the links. If you have executed announcements, you need to extract them. It is not as simple as turning off a light switch.” As difficult as it may be, it is a decision that self-published authors will be more and more forced to take.

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