news
Calibre 8.16 Adds LLM Slop for Hype's Sake
-
9to5Linux ☛ Calibre 8.16 Open-Source E-Book Manager Adds More Hey Hi (AI) Features, Bug Fixes
Calibre 8.16 open-source e-book management software is now available for download with various new Hey Hi (AI) features and several bug fixes. Here's what's new!
-
Linuxiac ☛ Calibre 8.16 E-Book Manager Introduces Hey Hi (AI) Book Insights
Calibre 8.16 adds Hey Hi (AI) book discussions, new recommendation tools, and support for local LM Studio models in a feature-packed update.
It's FOSS:
-
Calibre Now Lets You Chat About Your E-Books Using Local AI
A few months ago, Calibre introduced its first AI feature, letting users highlight text and ask questions directly in the eBook reader. It was a good start but relied entirely on cloud-based AI providers.
Now, Calibre 8.16.2 has arrived with some pretty handy upgrades to those capabilities, adding support for running AI models completely offline on-device. There are plenty of other new refinements too!
FOSS Force:
-
Unicorn Media ☛ Calibre 8.16’s Hey Hi (AI) Wants to Talk Books. It Can’t Even Find Mine.
After looking at the new Calibre 8.16 which puts Hey Hi (AI) on the playing field, our writer wonders if that's a good idea.
Later in LWN:
-
Calibre adds AI "discussion" feature
Version 8.16.0 of the calibre ebook-management software, released on December 4, includes a "Discuss with AI" feature that can be used to query various AI/LLM services or local models about books, and ask for recommendations on what to read next. The feature has sparked discussion among human users of calibre as well, and more than a few are upset about the intrusion of AI into the software. After much pushback, it looks as though users will get the ability to hide the feature from calibre's user interface, but LLM-driven features are here to stay and more will likely be added over time.
[...]
As Goyal pointed out, though, the Discuss feature does not work until an LLM provider is configured. If a user attempts to use it without doing so, calibre displays a dialog that directs the user to configure a provider first. Each provider is supplied as a separate plugin. Currently, calibre users have a choice of commercial providers, or running models locally using LM Studio or Ollama.
The Discuss feature shows up as a plugin as well. It is located in the calibre preferences in the "User interface action" category. However, it is a plugin that cannot be disabled or removed; nor can any of the other alleged plugins in that category. It seems fair to question whether something is actually a "plugin" if it cannot be unplugged. The separate provider plugins, in the "AI provider" category, can be disabled or removed, though. The provider plugins are enabled by default, but they do nothing until a user supplies credentials of some kind.