Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, a written document challenging the authority of the Catholic church, was nailed to a church door in 1517, sparking the Reformation. In the following decades, the church’s power and authority was continuously challenged and subsequently diminished. The Reformation would lead to the Age of Enlightenment, a golden age of critical thinking and bold ideas spread and distributed to the world via pamphlets and books.
Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, was one pamphlet among hundreds printed and distributed throughout the colonies, fueling the American Revolution.
The Social Contract, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, another pamphlet among hundreds, was printed and distributed throughout France, challenging the absolute authority of the French monarchy and igniting the French Revolution.
These are NOT all-inclusive examples, just the first ones that popped into my head. The historical examples of reading material igniting a movement to topple authoritarian powers is far too exhaustive to name in a blog post. My point is:
Reading matters. Access matters. Interpretation matters.
Authoritarian regimes understand this history exceptionally well. They know books are dangerous and the people who read them think more critically about the world and their place in it. Books require people to think, to imagine, to feel, to use their brain to create their own sensory experiences from words on a page.
The greatest threat to authoritarianism is people who read books.
What better way to control people who read than to create an app with a software feature that tells readers what’s in the book before they even crack it open. A software feature that can be programed to sanitize content that would otherwise spark critical thoughts about authoritarianism, capitalism, and corporate interests if read in its entirety.
Authoritarians know that controlling information and keeps them in power.
How is access to information at stake, you ask?
I’ve seen several social media posts now from authors pledging to remove their books from Amazon’s KDP and KU because of the coming AI feature that will summarize book content for readers. This feature will not be optional.
Amazon has already done several moves of questionable ethicality with Kindle, such as eliminating Kindle libraries and updating their terms and conditions to include a clause stating they have the right the update the content of their books without the author’s consent.
Effectively, what this means is, Amazon can legally alter the content of books they deem too dangerous, update it across every kindle device that has the book downloaded, and no one can challenge them. The worst part is, most people would never even know they’ve done this.
And it’s all under the guise of ‘efficiency’ and ‘consistency.
I removed all my ebooks from KDP and KU last February. I have not looked back. I’m glad to see other authors are finally following suit and boycotting this platform. The more authors who choose to publish elsewhere, the more readers will follow too.
AI Summaries are about Information control.
Digging deeper and critically thinking about what you read and arriving at your own conclusion has historically been the spark that has ignited action for change and reshaped the world. AI summaries completely eliminate that experience from human existence.
Google, Amazon, and even Adobe are at the forefront of this AI Summary push.
AI isn’t about making life easier or better.
It’s never been about that.
Look who is creating and promoting AI.
If multibillion dollar companies truly wanted to make life easier and better for humanity, there are a trillion other ways they could achieve that. But they don’t. They know if they don’t create obstacles to reading and developing critical thinking skills, they are inevitably speeding on their own demise as corporate superpowers.
Bettering humanity is not and never has been the objective of AI.
AI is and always has been a method to control information. What you see, what you hear, what you read.
AI is shaping what is deemed acceptable and standard in place of critical thought and personal experience.
Amazon’s new AI feature will summarize book content for readers in whatever way Amazon sees fit, by whatever rules they deem acceptable to further their interests and the interests of the entities who cut their taxes. And they are just the beginning.
So yes. Pull your books off Amazon. Buy ebooks (and everything) from other platforms.
The Library of Alexandria was burned to the ground because the scrolls it contained were deemed too dangerous to the rising authoritarianism of early Christianity. The Dark Ages followed.
Brave readers and critical thinkers have desperately clawed us out of this darkness for centuries. Now that they are so close to finally pulling us out, authoritarians have developed a new tool to control the spread of dangerous information: AI.
Don’t throw tinder on the flames of Alexandria.
Read and Resist.
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