Calibre 8.11.1 is now available, and the headline feature is an “Ask AI” tab in the e-book viewer’s dictionary panel. It lets readers query AI about selected text using hundreds of models from providers like Google, OpenRouter, GitHub, and even local setups such as Ollama. Some of these can be used free of charge, and the feature doesn’t even load unless you configure it.
I have mixed feelings about this addition. Do we really need AI inside an e-book reader? For most people, a dictionary lookup is enough. That said, I’ll keep an open mind. If it helps readers get more context or insight from a book, maybe it will prove useful. Who knows.
Preferences have also been polished. Tooltips now show the keyboard shortcut for each category, which should make navigation faster and more intuitive.
This release clears up a number of bugs. Highlights no longer create duplicates, very large e-books should have working links on Windows, and malformed PDB files now convert more smoothly. Windows users also get properly signed .pyd DLLs, and a regression that broke conversions with certain metadata has been fixed. The Esc key now reliably closes footnote popups, and selection handles behave better when editing highlights.
News fetching has been updated as well, with improvements to the New York Times, the Economist, El Diplo, and the New York Review of Books.
Calibre remains free and open source, and while the AI experiment might feel unnecessary, the overall refinements keep it a strong tool for anyone managing e-books.
