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[-] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 79 points 1 week ago

From their release notes:

[...] Note that this feature is completely optional and no AI related code is even loaded until you configure an AI provider.

I'm glad for that part.

[-] Maiq@piefed.social 32 points 1 week ago

Why the fuck would i want that?

[-] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago

My exact reaction to everything corpo llms push.

Usually im thinking, huh, I actually have a brain, so I dont need a single thing theyre offering (which is really nothing that hasn't been around for 15 years, chatbots).

[-] faintwhenfree@lemmus.org 40 points 1 week ago

Then don't enable it, I hate the AI but there are people who want it and calibre implemented it the right way. Its opt in, you have to configure AI provider first before that no code related to ai is loaded. That's best way to implement AI.

[-] Maiq@piefed.social 1 points 6 days ago

You're right. I just read the article not the release notes so I assumed they were shoving this in a software I really enjoy. Thought Id have to find a replacment.

[-] stray@pawb.social 7 points 1 week ago

Users can highlight any text and ask AI models questions about it, receiving explanations, context, or summaries on the spot.

I can see this being particularly useful for autistic people who don't understand a very poetic section, or for people reading a text which is not their first language.

[-] Maiq@piefed.social 1 points 6 days ago

Fair use of tech i don't have a use for, i didn't think of.

[-] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

AI slop has no place in books.

[-] SW42@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

I don’t really see a use case for it on calibre. Maybe others are more creative than I am and can tell me what they would use it for.

As far as I see it on the release notes it is completely optional and nothing gets loaded until the Provider is defined and activated so it’s peachy for me.

[-] unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 week ago

Well, have you ever read something and went "what the hell is this?", "I don't get this", "what is an abubemaneton?". Well, now you'll be able to quickly ask AI about it.

[-] msage@programming.dev 10 points 1 week ago

I would always prefer a dictionary or a Wikipedia over a fucking LLM.

[-] stray@pawb.social 5 points 1 week ago

But you can't always use a dictionary to understand the use of words or phrases in novel contexts. For instance, maybe a phrase contains meaning not in its literal text, but in its resemblance to a quotation from another work, or to a previous quotation within the same work.

I've taken a classic Swedish poem ("Bron" by Erik Lindorm), and I can't seem to find an explanation of what it means via traditional searching. But when I paste it into ChatGPT and ask what it means, it gives a detailed interpretation.

A human could do the same, but it's unreasonable to expect every learner has a human on standby to cater to their every educational whim at all hours of the day.

[-] msage@programming.dev 5 points 1 week ago

LLMs will tell you anything, and if you can't fact check it, you will never know if it's true or not.

If you're fine with believing in random words put together nicely, I can't stop you, but I won't cheer you on, either.

LLMentalist

[-] stray@pawb.social 5 points 1 week ago

Your own reference explains how the AI responses are more than just random words put together nicely, and I can and have fact-checked it. It's not a trustworthy tool for many things, but it is useful for language-based pursuits, because language is precisely what it's designed to work with.

For example, I've recently been watching a Chinese period drama and asked ChatGPT what various words were by transcribing how I heard them and explaining the context. It gave me accurate hanzi, pinyin, and definitions as confirmed by dictionary sites. It's been a very valuable tool to me for language learning.

[-] msage@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago

It's a token-based model. Not exactly language.

I'm happy that you feel like it's helping you.

But never trust it.

[-] athatet@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago

And then the AI can give you some made up and incorrect answer. Hooray!

[-] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 1 week ago

fuck that shit!

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 9 points 1 week ago

What would it be doing if I enabled it?

And can it be configured to use local(ly installed) AI?

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 11 points 1 week ago

Probably comprehend sections of the text.

Regarding your 2nd question: Yes, you can e.g. use a local Ollama instance. https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/09/calibre-ai-integration.png

[-] sukhmel@programming.dev 5 points 1 week ago

I thought it would be useful for filling and finding metadata, but I don't think it can do that

[-] Euphoma@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago

So if it only lets the llm see highlighted text, whats the point of even adding it into calibre. It takes 0 extra seconds to paste that text into google or chatgpt or duck.ai or whatever

[-] unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 1 week ago

You know it doesn't take 0 seconds. Record yourself. If you are studying or something (and need AI comments somehow), it's a good feature.

[-] calliope@retrolemmy.com 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There’s also a small mental cost to switching contexts, from reader to browser.

This is actually one of the better uses of AI I’ve seen because it is literally asking a large language model about language.

I probably still won’t use it, but at least it makes sense!

[-] Harvey656@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I... kinda don't care about this. It does nothing if not enabled and its super barebones as far as I can tell.

[-] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago

This is why I hate how everything is AI now.

Generative AI is absolute trash.

A fancy suped up search engine using AI to check files and answer questions about the files, whatever.

[-] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

Its only being shoved in our faces to try to recoup the trillions they've lost, while using up finite resources so a 10 year old can make an ai image of a puppy.

Fucking hate it here. Going back to 1999.

[-] Unattributed@feddit.online 4 points 1 week ago

Just what nobody wanted in their eReading software.

this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
81 points (100.0% liked)

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