Private beta — free Pro through the end of the year

OpenStax · 2016

University Physics, Volume 1.
Now you can ask it things.

A physics textbook answers the question you brought only if you can find the paragraph that addresses it. This one is indexed down to its sections, figures and tables, so you can ask in words and get the passage back — with a link to where it sits in the book.

When the book does not answer your question, it tells you so instead of inventing an answer.

Ask section 1.1 a question

No account, no card. The section is open in the browser.

A cited answer in the reader: the question, the answer, and a link to the passage it came from
A cited answer in the reader: the question, the answer, and a link to the passage it came fromThe screenshot is from a converted research paper — the demo assets we have today. The citation works the same way in any book.

Answers scoped to the section you are in

Ask about kinematics in chapter 3 and the answer comes from chapter 3, not from a worked example eight chapters later that assumes things you have not met.

Figures and tables are addressable

Ask what a figure shows and it is found and described. It will not read a value off a plot unless the value is printed on the plot.

Vocabulary you can actually keep

Terms you look up go into a vocabulary builder that schedules reviews with SM-2 spaced repetition.

Things worth asking this book

Each answer quotes the passage it came from and links to where it sits in the text.

  • “What is a physical model for, and when does it stop being useful?”
  • “Why are orders of magnitude worth estimating before solving anything?”
  • “What is the difference between accuracy and precision here?”
  • “Which quantities in this chapter are defined, and which are measured?”

Questions people actually ask

Can I try it before making an account?
Yes. Section 1.1 of this book is open at /demo with no sign-in — ask it anything and watch where the citations point.
Will it answer from a chapter I have not reached?
Not when you ask about the chapter you are in; answers are scoped to it. You can widen the scope to the whole book deliberately, but that is not the default.
What happens when the book does not cover my question?
It says so. It is built to decline rather than assemble a plausible answer out of unrelated passages, and declining is the behaviour it is tested for.

It works the same on a novel

Citations, honest refusals and the vocabulary builder are not a science feature. They do as much for a Victorian novel as for a problem set.

What it does not do yet

You have been sold AI reading tools before. Here is where this one is weak, so you can decide before you spend an evening on it.

  • Equations in this book are read from the publisher’s own markup, so they are exact. In a scanned PDF they come from OCR and should be checked.
  • It describes what a figure shows, but it will not report a number that only exists as pixels in a plot.
  • It runs in a browser, on a phone or a laptop. There is no native app yet.
  • Highlights and notes export to Notion, Obsidian, Markdown or JSON. Generated study material does not export yet.
  • It is a private beta. Things break, and the deal is that you tell me when they do.

Free Pro through the end of the year

The first 50 invitations include free Pro through the end of the year. Invitations go out in small batches so I can actually talk to everyone. Tell me what you are trying to read and I will send one — all I ask is that you tell me what breaks.

Request Early Access

Already have an invite? Sign in.