Could AI understand Nietzsche? Maybe with the help of these scholars.
Advertisement
'Rebound was born basically as the idea that you can use AI to redistribute original commentary about books,' Kaag said.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
You read Rebind books through a standard web browser. At each page there are icons that let you type in questions about the work, or you can speak questions into Rebind's speech recognition system.
Say you're unsure what Nietzsche means when he writes that God is dead. A Rebind reader can ask Clancy Martin, a leading Nietzche scholar who teaches at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Martin distilled his expertise into a 300,000-word commentary on the book. When the reader asks a question of Nietzsche, Rebind's AI ferrets out Martin's answer and displays it on screen, sometimes with additional information located by the AI. Or suppose you're unclear about the meaning of Nietzsche's word 'Ubermensch.' Just highlight it and click to get Martin's explanation of the concept.
Many AI applications promise to simplify our lives, but not Rebind. It's for readers who welcome the challenge of complex and demanding books, but who need help over the rough spots.
The story of Rebind began two years ago with John Dubuque, who'd made a fortune in the plumbing supply business in St. Louis. But Dubuque's first love was philosophy, a subject he'd studied in college. Having sold the plumbing business, Dubuque reached out to Kaag, a specialist in the study of major US philosophers.
Advertisement
'He said, 'Hey, I'd like you to take me through this book that I've always wanted to read but been scared of,'' Kaag said. Dubuque aimed high — he wanted to master 'The Varieties of Religious Experience,' a renowned 1902 book by Harvard philosopher William James. Kaag agreed, and the two had a high old time discussing ineffability, transience, and other concepts that rarely make the newspapers.
The experience gave Dubuque an idea. He'd been awed by generative AI systems like ChatGPT, which could serve up sensible though not-always-accurate answers to all manner of questions. Surely a similar chatbot could be trained to guide readers through great books. Then anybody could learn to understand even the most demanding texts, without having to hire a college professor.
'ChatGPT can't do that,' Kang scoffed. But Dubuque believed it could be done by supplementing the AI with an in-depth analysis of the book, produced by a human expert.
Martin and the other experts recruited by the company are called 'Rebinders.' Their job is to produce a vast amount of detailed commentary about their assigned books. They also appear in a series of videos that introduce the books and highlight key portions of the texts.
It's hard work for the Rebinders, but they're paid five-figure fees for the work. 'I found it to be really, really creatively satisfying,' Martin said. 'You start working on something you love and you wind up pouring your heart into it.' Indeed, he liked it so much that Martin joined Rebind as deputy publisher.
'It was a surprising amount of work,' said Deb Olin Unferth, a professor at the University of Texas who's preparing a Rebind edition of stories by Kafka. Not that she's complaining. 'For me it became like a love project. I just had so much fun doing it.'
Advertisement
Rebind has recruited several literary stars. Marlon James has signed on to produce commentary for Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' John Banville is doing 'Dubliners' by James Joyce, and New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay is Rebinding 'The Age of Innocence' by Edith Wharton.
The company hopes to eventually offer upgrades to each book. By analyzing the questions asked by readers, Rebind will go back to their experts and request additional commentary to fill in any gaps. That way, Rebind books can get smarter over time.
In all, 11 books are available through Rebind, and Kaag hopes to offer 20 by year's end. Prices per book vary between $30 and $60. Or readers can purchase a one-year subscription for $120 and get access to every book on the shelf.
And if you think the current inventory of books is challenging, here comes the Bible. First up will be selections from the New Testament and the Gnostic Gospels, with commentary by Elaine Pagels, professor of religious history at Princeton University. But Kaag said they're working on the entire Bible. He said the first version will rely on a massive Bible commentary produced by Protestant scholars. He already knows what will happen next.
'We're going to get blowback immediately that we haven't addressed Catholicism or a Jewish interpretation of the Jewish Bible,' Kaag said. 'So what we're planning to do is actually upload multiple interpretations, and then put those into conversation with each other for end users.' Like having a priest, a rabbi, and a minister get into a friendly argument (not at a bar), mediated by AI.
Advertisement
Obviously Rebind isn't for everyone. In an age of social media and ever-present video entertainment, it's an open question whether such a cerebral technology product can find an audience.
'In times like ours do people really want to slow down and read in a very patient, thoughtful way?' Clancy said. 'Well, there's one way to find out.'
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
AI tools collect, store your data – how to be aware of what you're revealing
Like it or not, artificial intelligence has become part of daily life. Many devices — including electric razors and toothbrushes — have become "AI-powered," using machine learning algorithms to track how a person uses the device, how the device is working in real time, and provide feedback. From asking questions to an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot to monitoring a daily fitness routine with a smartwatch, many people use an AI system or tool every day. While AI tools and technologies can make life easier, they also raise important questions about data privacy. These systems often collect large amounts of data, sometimes without people even realizing their data is being collected. The information can then be used to identify personal habits and preferences, and even predict future behaviors by drawing inferences from the aggregated data. As an assistant professor of cybersecurity at West Virginia University, I study how emerging technologies and various types of AI systems manage personal data and how we can build more secure, privacy-preserving systems for the future. Generative AI software uses large amounts of training data to create new content such as text or images. Predictive AI uses data to forecast outcomes based on past behavior, such as how likely you are to hit your daily step goal, or what movies you may want to watch. Both types can be used to gather information about you. Generative AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini collect all the information users type into a chat box. Every question, response and prompt that users enter is recorded, stored and analyzed to improve the AI model. OpenAI's privacy policy informs users that "we may use content you provide us to improve our Services, for example to train the models that power ChatGPT." Even though OpenAI allows you to opt out of content use for model training, it still collects and retains your personal data. Although some companies promise that they anonymize this data, meaning they store it without naming the person who provided it, there is always a risk of data being reidentified. Beyond generative AI assistants, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok continuously gather data on their users to train predictive AI models. Every post, photo, video, like, share and comment, including the amount of time people spend looking at each of these, is collected as data points that are used to build digital data profiles for each person who uses the service. The profiles can be used to refine the social media platform's AI recommender systems. They can also be sold to data brokers, who sell a person's data to other companies to, for instance, help develop targeted advertisements that align with that person's interests. Many social media companies also track users across websites and applications by putting cookies and embedded tracking pixels on their computers. Cookies are small files that store information about who you are and what you clicked on while browsing a website. One of the most common uses of cookies is in digital shopping carts: When you place an item in your cart, leave the website and return later, the item will still be in your cart because the cookie stored that information. Tracking pixels are invisible images or snippets of code embedded in websites that notify companies of your activity when you visit their page. This helps them track your behavior across the internet. This is why users often see or hear advertisements that are related to their browsing and shopping habits on many of the unrelated websites they browse, and even when they are using different devices, including computers, phones and smart speakers. One study found that some websites can store over 300 tracking cookies on your computer or mobile phone. Like generative AI platforms, social media platforms offer privacy settings and opt-outs, but these give people limited control over how their personal data is aggregated and monetized. As media theorist Douglas Rushkoff argued in 2011, if the service is free, you are the product. Many tools that include AI don't require a person to take any direct action for the tool to collect data about that person. Smart devices such as home speakers, fitness trackers and watches continually gather information through biometric sensors, voice recognition and location tracking. Smart home speakers continually listen for the command to activate or "wake up" the device. As the device is listening for this word, it picks up all the conversations happening around it, even though it does not seem to be active. Some companies claim that voice data is only stored when the wake word — what you say to wake up the device — is detected. However, people have raised concerns about accidental recordings, especially because these devices are often connected to cloud services, which allow voice data to be stored, synced and shared across multiple devices such as your phone, smart speaker and tablet. If the company allows, it's also possible for this data to be accessed by third parties, such as advertisers, data analytics firms or a law enforcement agency with a warrant. This potential for third-party access also applies to smartwatches and fitness trackers, which monitor health metrics and user activity patterns. Companies that produce wearable fitness devices are not considered "covered entities" and so are not bound by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. This means that they are legally allowed to sell health- and location-related data collected from their users. Concerns about HIPAA data arose in 2018, when Strava, a fitness company released a global heat map of users' exercise routes. In doing so, it accidentally revealed sensitive military locations across the globe through highlighting the exercise routes of military personnel. The Trump administration has tapped Palantir, a company that specializes in using AI for data analytics, to collate and analyze data about Americans. Meanwhile, Palantir has announced a partnership with a company that runs self-checkout systems. Such partnerships can expand corporate and government reach into everyday consumer behavior. This one could be used to create detailed personal profiles on Americans by linking their consumer habits with other personal data. This raises concerns about increased surveillance and loss of anonymity. It could allow citizens to be tracked and analyzed across multiple aspects of their lives without their knowledge or consent. Some smart device companies are also rolling back privacy protections instead of strengthening them. Amazon recently announced that starting on March 28, 2025, all voice recordings from Amazon Echo devices would be sent to Amazon's cloud by default, and users will no longer have the option to turn this function off. This is different from previous settings, which allowed users to limit private data collection. Changes like these raise concerns about how much control consumers have over their own data when using smart devices. Many privacy experts consider cloud storage of voice recordings a form of data collection, especially when used to improve algorithms or build user profiles, which has implications for data privacy laws designed to protect online privacy. All of this brings up serious privacy concerns for people and governments on how AI tools collect, store, use and transmit data. The biggest concern is transparency. People don't know what data is being collected, how the data is being used, and who has access to that data. Companies tend to use complicated privacy policies filled with technical jargon to make it difficult for people to understand the terms of a service that they agree to. People also tend not to read terms of service documents. One study found that people averaged 73 seconds reading a terms of service document that had an average read time of 29 to 32 minutes. Data collected by AI tools may initially reside with a company that you trust, but can easily be sold and given to a company that you don't trust. AI tools, the companies in charge of them and the companies that have access to the data they collect can also be subject to cyberattacks and data breaches that can reveal sensitive personal information. These attacks can by carried out by cybercriminals who are in it for the money, or by so-called advanced persistent threats, which are typically nation/state-sponsored attackers who gain access to networks and systems and remain there undetected, collecting information and personal data to eventually cause disruption or harm. While laws and regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act aim to safeguard user data, AI development and use have often outpaced the legislative process. The laws are still catching up on AI and data privacy. For now, you should assume any AI-powered device or platform is collecting data on your inputs, behaviors and patterns. Although AI tools collect people's data, and the way this accumulation of data affects people's data privacy is concerning, the tools can also be useful. AI-powered applications can streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks and provide valuable insights. But it's crucial to approach these tools with awareness and caution. When using a generative AI platform that gives you answers to questions you type in a prompt, don't include any personally identifiable information, including names, birth dates, Social Security numbers or home addresses. At the workplace, don't include trade secrets or classified information. In general, don't put anything into a prompt that you wouldn't feel comfortable revealing to the public or seeing on a billboard. Remember, once you hit enter on the prompt, you've lost control of that information. Remember that devices which are turned on are always listening — even if they're asleep. If you use smart home or embedded devices, turn them off when you need to have a private conversation. A device that's asleep looks inactive, but it is still powered on and listening for a wake word or signal. Unplugging a device or removing its batteries is a good way of making sure the device is truly off. Finally, be aware of the terms of service and data collection policies of the devices and platforms that you are using. You might be surprised by what you've already agreed to. Christopher Ramezan is an assistant professor of cybersecurity at West Virginia University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. This article is part of a series on data privacy that explores who collects your data, what and how they collect, who sells and buys your data, what they all do with it, and what you can do about it. This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: AI devices collect your data, raise questions about privacy | Opinion
Fast Company
4 hours ago
- Fast Company
Perplexity's new AI features are a game changer. Here's how to make the most of them
Perplexity has become my primary tool for search. I rely on it for concise summaries of complex topics. I like the way it synthesizes information and provides reliable citations for me to explore further. I prefer Perplexity's well-organized responses to Google's laundry list of links, though I still use Google to find specific sites & addresses and for other 'micro-searches.' Perplexity's not perfect. I've rarely seen it hallucinate, but it can pick dubious sources or misinterpret your question. As with any tool that uses AI, the wording of your query impacts your result. Write detailed queries and specify preferred sources when you can. Double-check critical data or facts. Google's new AI Mode is a strong new competitor, and ChatGPT, Claude and others now offer AI-powered search, but I still rely on Perplexity for reasons detailed below. This post updates my previous post with new features, examples, and tips. My favorite new features Labs. Create slides, reports, dashboards, and Web apps by writing a detailed query and specifying the format of the results you want. Check out the Project Gallery for 20 examples. Voice Mode. I ask historical questions about books, curiosities about nature and science, and things I should already know about movies & music. The transcript shows up afterwards. Templates for Spaces. A large new collection of templates makes it easier to get started with custom instructions for various kinds of research, for sales/marketing, education, finance, or other subjects. Transcription. Upload & transcribe files up to 25mb. Ask for insights & ideas. Topical landing pages for finance, travel, shopping, and academics provide useful examples and new practical ways to use Perplexity. When to use Perplexity Get up to speed on a topic: Need to research North Korea-China relations? Ask Perplexity for a summary and sources. See the result. Research hyper-specific information: Ask for a list of organizations that crowdsource info about natural disasters. See the result. Explore personal curiosities: I was curious about Mozart's development as a violinist, so I asked for key dates and details. See the result. The best things about Perplexity Sources. Perplexity provides links to its sources, so you can follow-up on anything you want to learn more about. Tip: specify sources to prioritize. Summaries. Instead of long articles or lists of links, get straight-to-the-point answers that save time. Tip: specify when you want a summary table. Follow-ups. Ask follow-up questions to dive deeper into a topic, just like a conversation. For visual topics, Perplexity can surface relevant images and videos. Tip: customize your own follow-up query if defaults aren't relevant. Deep Research. Get fuller results for queries where you need more info. Tip: Use Claude or ChatGPT to help you draft clearer, more thorough search prompts. Spaces. Group related searches into collections so they're easy to return to later. I created one for Atlanta before a trip. You can keep a collection private, invite others to edit it, or share a public link. Tip: create a team space. Pages. Share search results by creating public pages you can customize. Watch a 1-minute video demo. Examples: Beginners Guide to Drumming, a Barcelona itinerary, and forest hotels in Sweden. Labs. Use Perplexity More Effectively You can use Perplexity on the Web, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. Start with Perplexity's own introductory guide, check the how it works FAQ, then use the Get Started template to use Perplexity itself to learn more. Write detailed queries Include two or more sentences specifying what you're looking for and why. Your result will be better than if you just use keywords. Refine your settings Specify one or more preferred source types: Web, academic sources, social (i.e. Reddit), or financial (SEC filings). Pick your model. Advanced users can specify the AI flavor Perplexity uses. I'd recommend maintaining Perplexity's default or the o3 option for research that requires complex reasoning. You can also use Grok, Gemini or Claude. Specify domains to search. Mention specific domains or kinds of sites you're interested in for more targeted results. Use a domain limiter to narrow your search to a particular site or domain type, e.g. 'domain:.gov' to focus only on government sites. Or just use natural language to limit Perplexity to certain kinds of sites, as in this example scouring CUNY sites for AI policies. Personalize your account. Add a brief summary of your interests, focus areas, and information preferences in your profile to customize the way Perplexity provides you with answers. Quick searches are fine when you're just looking for a simple fact, like when was CUNY founded. Pro searches are best for more intricate, multi-part queries. On the free plan you get 3 pro searches a day. Examples: Perplexity in action Check public opinion: 'Is there a Pew survey about discovering news through social media platforms?' See the result. Explore historical archives: 'List literacy and education programs in high-growth African countries in the last decade.' See the result. Pricing Free for unlimited quick searches, 3 pro searches and 3 file uploads per day. $20/month for unlimited file and image uploads for analysis; access to Labs; and 10x as many citations. See the 2025 feature comparison. Privacy To protect your privacy when using Perplexity, capitalize on the following: Turn 'data retention' off in your settings. (Screenshot). Turn on the Incognito setting if you're signed in to anonymize a search. Search in an incognito browser tab without logging into Perplexity. Bonus features The free Chrome Extension lets you summon a Perplexity search from any page. The 'summarize' button hasn't always worked for me. The Perplexity Encyclopedia has a collection of tool comparisons An experimental beta Tasks feature lets you schedule customized searches Listen to an AI audio chat about Perplexity I generated w/ NotebookLM. Caveats Accuracy and confabulation: While Perplexity uses retrieval augmented generation to reduce errors, it's not flawless. Check the sources it references. Document analysis limitations: The file size limit for uploads is 25MB. Covert larger files to text or use Adobe's free compressor or SmallPDF. Deep Research, though fast, is not nearly as thorough as what is provided by ChatGPT's Deep Research or Gemini's. Alternatives to Perplexity Google AI Mode: Google's much-improved new AI search option provides summary responses like Perplexity. Here's an example of a comparison table it created for me and its take on 10 Perplexity features. Try it in labs. Free. Consensus: Superb for academic queries. Search 200 million peer-reviewed research papers and get a summary and links to publications. Useful for scientific or other research questions, e.g. active vs. passive learning or how cash transfers impact poverty. Pricing: Free for unlimited searches and limited premium use; $9/month billed annually for full AI capabilities. ChatGPT Web Search. Turn on the 'Search the Web' option under the tools menu when using ChatGPT to enable Web searching. Search chats include inline links with sources. For example, here's a ChatGPT Web search query about Perplexity vs. other AI search tools. It includes a helpful ChatGPT-generated chart. As differentiators I like Perplexity's summaries, suggested follow-up queries, Labs, and the handy Voice Mode for quick questions.
Tom's Guide
4 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
I let AI summarize every PDF I read — 6 prompts that saved me hours
I have had to read so many PDFs for work. This can end up taking hours of your day, searching through documents for nuggets of information or one key figure buried near the end. However, I have now been using ChatGPT for a while to help me with this. The chatbot can become your best friend when it comes to PDFs, working through wealths of information to give you the answers you need. These six prompts are all you'll ever need to use with ChatGPT for your next PDF scroll. Using the prompt 'Summarize this PDF' is a lifesaver for long documents. Instead of having to work your way through 30-odd pages of text, this prompt will offer up a summary of all of the key details. This will give a quick overview, as well as picking out key bits of information. For example, on research papers, this prompt can layout the findings, methodology and key bits of information in one easy list. This also works for non-PDF documents. Try uploading a YouTube video or news story and using the same prompt to condense large amounts of information into an easy-to-digest system. Sometimes you'll be working through so many PDFs in one go, quickly scimming through each one to just find out a few key points. Skip this step by asking ChatGPT to 'Pick out the key points in this PDF'. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Similar to the prompt above, this will work through the document, offering some bullet points on the most important parts of the document. This will often include facts and figures, findings or an overall objective from the PDF. This can also be expanded to ask the same question but on specific chapters of a noticeably long PDF. This is an especially useful prompt for PDFs that feature a lot of quotes. Whether its for a research paper you're working on or if you're trying to find quotes to support a marketing plan, this can scan through a whole PDF looking for quotes. More importantly, if there is a ridiculous amount of text to work through, you can use this prompt more specifically. For example, 'Find quotes that are positive about the product from people in senior positions'. You can also ask ChatGPT where these quotes come from so you can go back and confirm all of the wording and attribution is correct. A prompt that can be a little hit and miss. "Extract all figures, tables and charts, explaining each" will do as it says. However, this is reliant on all of these tables and figures being readable to ChatGPT. If there is a table that has been photocopied or is in a particularly confusing infographic, it could be easily missed. However, in my time using this prompt, I have rarely seen it make a mistake. You can also ask ChatGPT to take the information and put it into tables of your own or compile all of the information gathered into one document. Why limit yourself to just the PDF you're reading? Ask ChatGPT to examine the internet for supporting articles and ChatGPT will provide a document of supporting content. Along with condensing all of this information into the chat, it will also provide links to important sources to follow up on. It is crucial to double check any information that comes from this. Because you are asking ChatGPT to directly check the internet and compare it to a PDF, it can cause some hallucinations in the crossover. A lot of the prompts above will extract information from a PDF, but they will do so in bullet points and summarized phrases. This one on the other hand will create a written report explaining everything that is in there. Simply ask ChatGPT to 'explain the PDF to me.' You can add extra information such as explaining it in simple terms or explaining it for someone focused on marketing to pick up key details. I have found a lot of success with the prompt 'Read through the PDF and become an expert in it. Then, explain it to me as an expert on the information.' This takes away the conversational tone and focuses on the importance of the information.
