Calibre adds AI 'discussion' feature

Source: Hacker News

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Calibre 8.16.0 – “Discuss with AI”

Version 8.16.0 of the calibre ebook‑management software (released December 4) introduced a “Discuss with AI” feature. The feature lets users query various AI/LLM services—or local models—about books and ask for reading recommendations.

The addition sparked a heated discussion among calibre users, many of whom are upset about AI being embedded in the software. After considerable push‑back, users will be able to hide the feature from calibre’s UI, but LLM‑driven functionality appears to be here to stay and more will likely be added over time.

Proposal from Amir Tehrani (August 2025)

I have developed and tested a new feature that integrates Google’s Gemini API (which can be abstracted to any compatible LLM) directly into the Calibre E‑book Viewer. My aim is to empower users with in‑context AI tools, removing the need to leave the reading environment. The results: instant text summarisation, clarification of complex topics, grammar correction, translation, and more, enhancing the reading and research experience.

Kovid Goyal, creator and maintainer of calibre, quickly voiced approval. He dismissed concerns that the feature might bother some users and suggested that Tehrani submit a pull request.

• August 10: Tehrani submitted the patches.
• Goyal later merged them into mainline after refactoring the code and added a description of additional LLM features he envisions:

“There are likely going to be new APIs added to all back‑ends to support things like generating covers, finding what to read next, TTS (text‑to‑speech), grammar and style fixing in the editor, and possibly metadata download.”

Goyal also promised that calibre would “never ever use any third‑party service without explicit opt‑in.”

Discuss removing the feature

It didn’t take long for users to start asking for the AI feature’s removal.

• User “msr” opened a thread on the Mobileread forum:

  “I generally find the AI‑push to be morally repugnant (among other things, I am an author whose work has been stolen for training) and I hate to see these features creep into software I use. I have zero interest in ever using so‑called AI for anything.”

• Goyal replied that the features do nothing unless they are enabled: “The worst you get is a few menu entries. Simply ignore them.”

Other users echoed the anti‑AI sentiment:

• “Quoth” said they would not update calibre until the feature was scrapped: “It’s a thin end of a wedge and encouraging people to use these over‑hyped LLMs, even though off by default.”

• Goyal replied that the feature is staying:

  “It’s not going to be scrapped, so goodbye, I guess. You are more than welcome to not use AI if you don’t want to. Calibre very nicely makes that easy for you by having it off by default to the extent that the AI code is not even loaded unless you enable it. What you DO NOT get to do is try to make that choice for other people.”

What’s added so far

• The feature appears in the calibre UI by default, under View → “Discuss selected books with AI.”
• The naming is problematic: calling the process of sending queries to an LLM a “discussion” encourages anthropomorphising the tool and reinforces the misconception that these tools “think” like people. The responses, however valuable, do not reflect actual thought.

How it works

1. Provider configuration – The Discuss feature does nothing until an LLM provider is configured. If a user tries to use it without a provider, calibre shows a dialog prompting configuration.
2. Provider plugins – Each provider is supplied as a separate plugin. Current options include commercial services and local models via LM Studio or Ollama.
3. Plugin status – The Discuss feature itself is listed under Preferences → “User interface action.” It cannot be disabled or removed, unlike the separate provider plugins (found under “AI provider”), which can be disabled or removed.

Because the provider plugins are disabled by default and require explicit credentials (e.g., an access token for the GitHub AI provider or an API key for Google’s AI), users cannot accidentally enable a feature that sends data off‑site. Local providers also require the user to have LM Studio or Ollama installed and to go through additional steps to enable them.

Practical experience

Even when a provider is configured, users may encounter issues. (The original author’s testing experience was cut off in the source text.)

This markdown has been cleaned up for readability while preserving the original structure and content.

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The AI Integration Experience

I set up GitHub AI, but even after successfully configuring it as a provider with the token, I had no luck. I could send queries, yet received no reply. I was able to get Calibre working with Ollama, though the experience was not particularly compelling.

Responses from GitHub AI or Ollama about books are of little interest to me; a model may have ingested a million or more books during training, but it hasn’t read a single one, nor had any life experience that could spark an insight or reaction. Thoughtful discussions of books with well‑read people who bring real perspectives would be delightful—but that’s beyond Calibre’s capabilities.

Hide AI

Despite dismissing complaints about the addition of AI, Kovid Goyal has grudgingly accepted a pull request to hide AI features. He said that anyone offended by a few menu entries is “not worth worrying about,” but added, “I don’t particularly mind having a tweak just to hide the menu entries, but that is all it should do.” He noted that someone would need to supply patches to hide additional AI functionality in the future, stating, “That someone isn’t going to be me as I don’t have the patience to waste my time catering to insanity.”

A “remove slop” pull request from Ember‑ruby that would have stripped out AI features from Calibre was rejected without comment. The Calibre fork containing those patches may be of interest to those who wish to fork Calibre.

Known forks

• clbre – a fork that “only got as far as the name” because “the AI is stripped out.” To date the only work in that repository is an updated README.
• arcalibre – a fork created by Xandra Granade’s rereading project. Its goal is a snapshot of Calibre “with all AI antifeatures removed” that can be used for future forks. No new features are planned for arcalibre.

The rereading draft charter suggests that the project will develop additional applications based on arcalibre. It is far too early to say whether the project will produce anything interesting in the long term. Any future forkers should note that the name “Excalibre” is right there for the taking.

Resistance Seems Futile

No doubt part of Calibre’s audience is pleased to see the AI feature, but it has proven to be an unwelcome addition for many users. It is not surprising that those users have asked for it to be removed or changed in a way that it can be hidden.

It has been a disappointing year overall for Linux and open‑source enthusiasts who object to the seemingly relentless AI‑ification of everything. Companies are shoving AI features into proprietary software, whether the features actually make sense or not. An open‑source project like Calibre has no shareholders to please by ticking the “AI inside” box, so few people would have had “adds AI” on their Calibre bingo card for 2025.

An AI feature landing in Calibre feels like a fitting coda to the recurrent theme of AI and open source in 2025; whether users want to engage with AI or not, it seems inescapable. One might wonder: if AI has come to Calibre—a project with no commercial incentive to add it—is there any refuge at all?

Other open‑source projects are also embracing AI:

• Bitwarden – now accepting AI‑generated contributions.
• KeePassXC – accepting AI‑assisted contributions.
• Fedora and the Linux kernel – moving toward accepting LLM‑assisted contributions.
• Mozilla – “all‑in on AI,” pushing it into Firefox.

This is not an exhaustive list; compiling one would be exhausting at this point.

Alternatives (or Lack Thereof)

In most cases, users still have options without LLM features. When it comes to Calibre, however, there is no real alternative to turn to—and there was no real alternative before it adopted “Discuss with AI” either. Many open‑source programs handle reading e‑books; that territory is well‑covered. Some, like Foliate, are arguably better than Calibre at that specific task.

But there is no other ebook‑management software (open source or otherwise) that matches Calibre’s conversion features and support for exporting to such a wide variety of e‑book readers.

Notable attempts

• 22 – an attempted Calibre alternative by Evan Buss (2019). Buss abandoned the project after learning that “ebook managers are much more difficult to get right than I had previously imagined,” and maintaining compatibility with Calibre proved near impossible.
• Citadel – started by Phil Denhoff in late 2023 as a Calibre‑compatible ebook‑library manager. Its last release was in October 2024, but Denhoff continues to commit to the repository, so hope remains.

While the lack of alternatives is frustrating for some, it is not Goyal’s fault. The open‑source community currently has no viable replacement for Calibre’s unique feature set, forcing many users to live with the AI integration—whether they like it or not.

Options for Linux Users

For now, those who object to the AI integration have a few choices:

1. Live with the lurking LLM features, or
2. Revert to a Calibre version prior to 8.16.0.

Goyal has made it easy to revert to an older version; the download.calibre.com site hosts all prior releases of Calibre, dating back to its pre‑1.0 days. The Download for Linux page also provides instructions on reverting to previous versions.

Distribution‑Specific Situations

• Debian 13 (“trixie”) – ships Calibre 8.5.0 for the remainder of the release’s lifetime.
• Fedora 42 – remains on the 8.0 branch.
• Fedora 43 – uses Calibre 8.14.
• Fedora Rawhide – currently provides 8.16.2, so users are likely to receive the Discuss feature in Fedora 44.

Users who obtain Calibre from their Linux distribution may stay LLM‑free for some time without taking any action.

The Emotional Reaction to the “Discuss” Feature

The strong reaction against Calibre’s Discuss feature may seem more emotional than logical, but it is understandable. Books are a human endeavor, even when they exist in electronic format. AI models have often been trained by plundering a corpus of books without respecting authors’ wishes or copyright. Suggesting that readers now turn to technologies that seek to replace humans to supplement their reading experience is, for many, deeply offensive.

It is puzzling that Goyal—who has catered to a large audience of book lovers for nearly 20 years—seems not to grasp the sensitivity of this issue.