A new digital reading platform called Lixandria, which plans to officially launch in English-language in U.S. and Europe later this year, aims to develop AI-powered, enhanced reading features for e-books in conjunction with those books’ copyright holders, according to founder Eric Shashoua.
"Publishers and authors are positioned to be completely taken over by AI and by tech," Shashoua, a tech entrepreneur, told PW. "We're trying to create a platform that compensates authors and compensates publishers and allows them to leverage these new generative technologies on top of the rich universe of IP that they've created."
Shashoua, who studied computer science and AI at Brown University before launching the consumer sleep technology company Zeo, said he hopes to prioritize transparency and fairness when it comes to leveraging AI to enhance the reading experience. Lixandria's business model, he noted, centers on ongoing revenue sharing rather than one-time content buyouts.
Shashoua specifically criticized deals like those Microsoft and Wiley have pursued: "They say, 'I'll give you a small amount of money once, consume your book, and then you're done. I don't need you anymore.' That's exactly what we're trying to avoid."
The platform will offer different AI-powered experiences for fiction and nonfiction, Shashoua said, with some included in the purchase price of the book and others available for an upcharge. For fiction, readers might be able to interact with characters, visualize scenes, or explore plot points, and for nonfiction works, readers might be able to query the book and will be provided with such tools as workbook exercises and quizzes.
Shashoua argued that the dominant e-reading platform, Amazon's Kindle, has "done very, very little" innovation over the past 15 years, leaving an opening for entrepreneurs like himself.
"AI is built in a way that is primarily and ideally about inventing things and coming up with stuff that's new and generating new things," he said, expressing an intent to position the company as an alternative to Amazon, which recently drew criticism for introducing AI features without meaningful input from publishers. Amazon argued that its new Ask this Book feature, which used AI to allow readers to query the text of a book, was an extension of its existing rights, while the Authors Guild sharply disagreed, arguing enhanced e-books were a new format for which rights should be specifically negotiated.
Publishers are responding positively to Lixandria's approach. According to Shashoua, the company has signed an agreement with one Big Five publisher and "secured commitments from a significant number" of smaller publishers, but has not yet announced these partnerships. He added that after the company launches this year, it aims to launch in French- and German-language markets next.
"The use of AI has veered towards kind of stealing everyone's lunch," Shashoua said. "We are establishing a platform that should allow publishers and authors to offer AI-driven reading experiences while maintaining ownership and receiving fair compensation for their content, come away not feeling exploited."
