Ghostreader in Readwise Reader

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Posted by Paul Korm
Nov 12, 2022 at 04:43 PM

I’ve been using Readwise’s Reader app for a few months, and find it far more than a “read later” app, with an increasing number of very useful features. (Not to mention that highlights and notes captured in Reader flow through Readwise’s integration with Obsidian so that those notes and highlights end up there.)

This week Reader introduced a feature the team is calling “Ghostreader”. Built on OpenAI’s GPT-3 API, Ghostreader can be invoked on any selection in an article saved to Reader. When invoked it offers several choices: define, encyclopedia lookup, translate, term lookup, explain (rewrite in simpler language), summarize, add whimsical prompts, flashcard, plus an option to add one’s own templates with custom prompts.

Many of these are not news—software on most platforms offer these options when words in text are selected. The cool thing about Ghostreader is that it provides the answer tailored to the context of the highlighted text. So, Ghostreader explains “primeval” with one focus in the context of an article discussion Genesis, and with a different focus in an article discussing Evangeline.

This is a more than a cheap trick; it’s like having a private research assistant looking over your shoulder as you read, ready to point out things you might have missed in understanding the reading.

Posted by MadaboutDana
Nov 14, 2022 at 08:13 PM

Well damn, that sounds really interesting. I shall look into it!

Thanks, Paul!

Posted by Jerry
Dec 14, 2022 at 09:35 PM

The Readwise Reader app is now in public beta. I may need to reactivate my recently expired Readwise account!

https://readwise.io/read

Jerry

Posted by JDS
Dec 18, 2022 at 01:51 AM

I reactivated, and it is worth every penny now,_. Especially if one is using Obsidian

Jerry wrote:
The Readwise Reader app is now in public beta. I may need to reactivate
>my recently expired Readwise account!
> >https://readwise.io/read
> >
>Jerry

Posted by Paul Korm
Dec 18, 2022 at 12:51 PM

I agree. Reader is very feature reach and very useful, and apparently there is more to come. They recently added a feature to capture and annotate excerpts of the transcripts of YouTube videos stored in Reader. YMMV of course, since many of the automated transcripts in YouTube are beyond bizarre.

Future export features have been mentioned (OPML among them). From the posts I received during the private beta it seems that Reader is now going to be the flagship product and eventually that is what people will subscribe to, with Readwise being the gift-with-purchase.

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