Greek readers accept AI help, but not AI authors

Greek readers appear willing to use artificial intelligence as a reading aid, but much less willing to trust it with authorship. In a survey conducted in Greece, 54% said they had used AI to explain words or images in books, 41% to help understand text and 29% to generate summaries, while only 31% would consider buying a book written entirely by AI. By contrast, 60% said they would consider a book presented as a collaboration between a human author and AI. According to the Public blog, the research, titled The Book and the World of Reading in Greece, was carried out by Truberries in May and used a double methodology. The quantitative phase covered a national sample of 816 people in seven major urban centres, and the qualitative work drew on personal stories and group discussions. The results point to a reading public that still sees human authorship as central to a book's value. The study said respondents regarded human involvement as an important guarantee of intellectual worth, even as they relied on AI for practical tasks while reading. It also comes after our report on a separate Amazon study that found AI-written ebooks were taking a growing share of the market from titles with no detected AI text. In Greece, however, the survey suggests readers are not yet ready to make the same leap from assistance to full machine authorship. Among people aged 18 to 59, four in 10 said they read books regularly. Twenty-three percent were classed as highly active, meaning they had read at least 11 books in the previous year and averaged 19 titles annually, while 48% read between three and 10 books. Buying habits were shaped most by subject or plot, cited by 73% of respondents. The back-cover description influenced 47%, while the author's name, price and discounts each mattered to 37%. Readers discovered new books almost equally through digital channels, at 31%, and physical stores, at 29%, and the average reader bought 9.7 books a year, including 6.75 for personal use and 2.95 as gifts. Around 32% of readers said they read books in English, rising to 41% among those aged 18 to 34. Among buyers of foreign-language books, 60% said they preferred the original linguistic style, and 52% said reading in another language was both enjoyable and educational. Audio is also part of the picture. Nine in 10 regular readers were familiar with audiobooks, and 82% of those expressed interest in using them in future. Walking was the most common association, at 47%, followed by public transport at 43% and driving at 31%. Reading remains tied to keeping rather than discarding books. Ninety percent of respondents kept their books on shelves or in home libraries, 84% kept a book after reading it, 38% lent it to someone else and only 1% discarded it. The survey also found that 34% had bought secondhand books. Greece has designated 2026 as the Year of Reading Culture, DiavaZOUME, with a focus on children, adolescents and younger readers.