"Calibre adding "AI conversations" with books fundamentally alters the relationship that users, presumably readers!, have with the works in their libraries. ... Here, Calibre, in one release, went from a tool readers can use to, well, read, to a tool that fundamentally views books as textureless content, no more than the information contained within them. Anything about presentation, form, perspective, voice, is irrelevant to that view. Books are no longer art, they're ingots of tin to be melted down. ... But the question remains: what relationship should a library management tool have with the author and the reader? How should or shouldn't it facilitate the creation of and participation in art?" (xgranade at mastodon - see their
full thread here.
I see that as valid objections to the newly introduced features - in addition to natural and developer resources waste, as pointed out by others. I'm using and loving Calibre since 2013, and have for now updated to the latest "pre-AI" version 8.15