Libby’s library app adds an AI discovery feature, and not everyone is thrilled

Library e-book and audiobook app Libby is including AI, a lot to the frustration of some readers and librarians, who would like to not have AI inserted into their favourite apps. The brand new characteristic, “Encourage Me,” permits customers to get e book suggestions through the use of prompts or from their beforehand saved titles in Libby.

To make use of the characteristic, readers faucet on the “Encourage Me” choices on Libby’s house web page, the place they will ask for fiction or nonfiction, then slim down the strategies by different components, like age vary, kind of content material, and extra. As an example, you would possibly faucet on strategies like “spine-tingling” or “amusing,” then on explicit situations, corresponding to “darkish humor about fashionable household dysfunction” or “time vacationers rescue dragons from medieval knights.”

The app will then show 5 related titles that match the requested inspiration.

Overdrive, the corporate that makes the Libby app, says the characteristic depends on every library’s digital assortment, so it can level to books the library provides. It additionally prioritizes titles which can be instantly out there to borrow.

Whereas a reasonably fundamental use case for AI, some Libby customers and librarians are pushing again on the addition by way of posts on social media websites, saying they’d desire to get e book suggestions with out the usage of AI expertise. Others are fearful concerning the potential privateness points that include some AI experiences.

Overdrive, nonetheless, clarifies in a coverage doc about Libby’s use of AI that it avoids gathering “inessential private data,” and when it does use your private data, it’s not shared with third events or synthetic intelligence fashions. The corporate additionally says that customers’ particulars and exercise aren’t shared with the AI mannequin.

Plus, in case you share certainly one of your saved tags with the AI to get strategies, it doesn’t obtain any particulars about you, your machine, or the title or description of your tag — it solely will get the titles to make use of for suggestions.

Maybe anticipating some pushback towards the brand new addition, Overdrive burdened in its announcement that its purpose was to not substitute “human perception” with a generative AI characteristic. Slightly, it says the characteristic might be used to “complement” librarian-led discovery.

“Encourage Me makes use of accountable AI integration to assist patrons dive deeper into the unimaginable catalogs their native libraries have curated,” Jen Leitman, OverDrive’s chief advertising and marketing officer, stated in an announcement. “By surfacing titles that align with what readers are trying to find, Encourage Me helps patrons uncover extra of the books their libraries have already invested in. It’s not about changing human perception, it’s about making discovery simpler, smarter, and extra intuitive,” she famous.

The corporate soft-launched the characteristic earlier this month, permitting customers to seek for “#InspireMe” in Libby’s app to realize entry. Now formally introduced and rolling out, all Libby customers ought to anticipate to realize entry to the characteristic in September.