Calibre 8.11 adds Ask AI assistant, text highlight fixes, and AI provider support

calibre 8.11 introduces an optional Ask AI assistant in the e-book viewer, allowing users to ask questions about book content through the dictionary lookup panel. The feature activates only when an AI provider is configured, with options including Google, OpenRouter, GitHub, or local models via Ollama. Several of these services are free, giving users flexibility in how they use the tool.

The update also fixes long-standing issues. Editing highlights no longer creates duplicates, and placement accuracy has been improved. On Windows, very large e-books with broken links now open correctly, and the build process signs both .dll and .pyd files to enhance security and consistency.

Other fixes include better conversion for malformed PDB files, corrected behavior when adding the first icon rule in the Tag browser, and proper closing of footnote popups with the Esc key. News integrations have also been refreshed for sources like The New York Times and The Economist.