Amazon “Ask This Book” Feature Not Setting Well With Authors
One of my fellow authors informed me about Amazon’s new “Ask This Book” feature that feeds book content into an AI (Artificial Intelligence) system. The problem with this new feature is that Amazon enabled this without any permission from authors (infringing upon author’s copyrights), as well as Amazon has not provided a way for authors to opt-out of this feature with their books.
As an author, I am seriously concerned by the way Amazon has rolled out this without bringing in feedback and permission from authors first. I have already begun speaking about this situation across Substack and social media, and I have also voiced my concerns directly to Amazon over social media. If you are an author or even a reader, please reach out to Amazon and make your voice heard about how horribly Amazon has handled this rollout. This feature primarily benefits Amazon’s bottom line, not the financial nor creative well-being of authors. It is time that we all take a stand on this issue and seriously push back against Amazon on this situation. If they wish to allow authors to opt-into the feature, that is fine, but to blanket force authors into this feature without their permission or without a way to opt-out is a massive overreach on Amazon’s part.