Sue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱Mar 21

Dystopia Status Level: ADS IN BOOKS 😡

My dear readers, you can leave Amazon, I promise. Even reducing Amazon usage helps, but *especially* for books. There are alternatives.

Here's how to find them:
https://susankayequinn.com/how-to-buy-sues-books-a-guide-to-retailers

Show threadDavid Scott MoyerMar 21
@susankayequinn I am all for the alternatives, but there are no ads imbedded in amazon ebooks.
Show threadSue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱Mar 21
@farbel first, you don't know that; second, they're *already* putting chatbots in the ebooks; third, Amazon has a long long LONG history of just rolling out stuff in small batch trials to see how it floats; fourth, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was AI accidentally left in the ebook by a shitty AI enthusiast author; fifth, people have OPENLY talked about ads in ebooks FOREVER; sixth, if this is none of the above, wait a minute, that will change.
Show threadDavid Scott Moyer
@susankayequinn First, I read a LOT of books on my aging kindle and have NEVER seen an ad. Second, nor have I ever seen a chatbot. Third, I don't know one single other person who has seen an ad or chatbot in an Amazon ebook. Your fourth point, I might believe, but that is not indicative of anything Amazon is doing other than allowing people to publish AI drek. Fifth, talk is talk. Sixth, everything changes, but that doesn't make your reposted meme true.
Mar 21 at 9:39pmWeb
Show threadSue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱Mar 21

@farbel it's in the kindle app now

https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/e-readers/amazon-adds-ai-chatbot-to-the-kindle-app-which-offers-spoiler-free-answers-about-your-ebooks

Amazon adds AI chatbot to the Kindle app which offers "spoiler-free" answers about your ebooks

Only on iOS for now, Android owners have to wait until 2026

Tom's Guide
Show threadSue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱Mar 21
@farbel Amazon isn't just "allowing people to publish AI drek" it pushes me to use their AI translators and AI narrators every time I log into the author portal. It's been using AI to summarize and then bury reviews written by humans. It's PUSHING AI SLOP everywhere. It is literally shoving its chatbots into everything.
Show threadDavid Scott MoyerMar 21
@susankayequinn Interesting. When I log in, it doesn't do that. I wonder why? My reviews appear to all be there in their original format. I wonder why? I see that chatbot is an option in the app, if, for some odd reason, a reader wants to ask questions about a book instead of just reading it. I have never come across it in my reading, because I don't do that.
Show threadHannah SteenbockMar 22

@farbel

It's above the reviews of every book I look at on Amazon, a "summary" of what people love about the book. It's not labeled as "AI", but that's clearly what it is.

Below that are the usual reviews, they are not changed. But how many people actually read on beyond that summary?

I know people no longer review much on Amazon, either, they just hit the stars at the end of an ebook, and that's it.

I will never review on Amazon again, I use Bookwyrm now.

@susankayequinn

Show threadClare HooleyMar 22
@farbel @susankayequinn the search has literally turned into a chat bot on iOS. It looks like classic search but it isn’t [edit: this is taking about search within the iOS kindle app, see linked article in thread above]. Doesn’t seem to be all books it’s doing to for me, but if it’s done that you can’t turn it off. You can give feedback on the answers.
Show threadSue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱Mar 22

@clare_hooley I strongly encourage you not to enage the chatbots at all, definitely not "feedback" you're just helping to train the bot

@farbel

Show threadClare HooleyMar 22
@susankayequinn @farbel sadly impossible not to engage - it’s integrated into the search function [edit: this is taking about search within the iOS kindle app, see linked article in thread above]. But yeh my only feedback is ‘turn it off’.
Show threadSue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱Mar 22

@clare_hooley you can change your search engine? I use Firefox/DuckDuckGo and turn off all the AI features

@farbel

Show threadClare HooleyMar 22
@susankayequinn @farbel this is about search within the iOS kindle app - if you are in the kindle app and use search in a book, this is now a chat bot. Yes, I do know about kobo, but kindle is one where I have legacy DRM’d books that I can only access that way so…