Nicholas Johnston, publisher of Axios and former editor-in-chief of the news site, has sparked controversy after publishing an article about using artificial intelligence (AI) to "read" books on his behalf instead of reading them himself.

"Artificial intelligence has become my reading partner," Johnston said at the beginning of his article published a few days ago. He explained that some books can be so boring that it's easy to lose focus, and he used James Fenimore Cooper’s novel "The Last of the Mohicans" as an example, describing it as "too dense" for "recreational reading on vacation," according to Futurism.

Instead of continuing to read the novel in a traditional way, Johnston wrote to an AI program: "I want a guide while I'm reading 'The Last of the Mohicans' that helps me understand what I've read and where the story is, without spoiling events or getting ahead of myself. Can you do this, chapter by chapter?"

AI reads for you

Johnston noted that the chatbot agreed that the book was difficult to follow, which a source described as an obvious example of AI systems further flattering their users. “The robot agreed,” Johnston said, and then it had a “summary of what happened so far” that explained “anything obscure.”

Johnston’s experiment raised several questions about how people use AI to read, including whether this represents the beginning of an “AI obsession,” or a specific kind of obsession with the technology that managers seem particularly prone to. It also raised questions about whether The Last of the Mohicans, published in 1826, is actually difficult to read and whether this advice was innovative enough to warrant a full article, especially since this use of AI is what users have been doing ever since the technology became available.

Mockery and criticism online

Johnston’s experiment drew waves of mockery online. “A writer at Axios: I melted my brain with AI, not only can I no longer read but I don’t even understand the point of reading anymore,” wrote one commenter on Blue Sky sarcastically.

Johnston also faced more profound, if not harsher, criticism. Jane Rosenweig, a writer and former director of the Writing Center at Harvard College, wrote: "This kind of 'reading' is different from what many of us understand by reading. It’s more like improving/subjugating books than enjoying them. The same thing happens with AI and writing."

“Professional advice” from the publisher

Rosenweig considered "The Last of the Mohicans," a novel usually studied in schools, to be an extremely poor example of this use. It can be searched on Google in seconds and detailed study guides are available for free, with information that is highly reliable, unlike AI answers which Johnston himself admits can sometimes be wrong.

However, Johnston offered what he described as "professional advice": the possibility of entering the entire book into a user's preferred chatbot program instead of just using limited prompts. This would "make it more accurate in its responses."