Podcast Summary:

New Books Network – "Reading the Bible with AI?: A Conversation with John Kaag, Philosopher and Co-Founder of Rebind AI"
Host: Caleb Zakrin
Guest: John Kaag, Professor of Philosophy at UMass Lowell, Co-Founder of Rebind Publishing
Release Date: December 3, 2025

Overview of the Episode

This episode features a discussion between host Caleb Zakrin and philosopher John Kaag about the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), reading, and scholarship—specifically, how Rebind AI is transforming deep engagement with classic texts, including the Bible. The conversation explores the origins, philosophy, technical mechanics, and future ambitions of Rebind, with a special emphasis on the newly launched Rebind Study Bible, a platform that allows users to interactively read and interpret scripture with the help of expert commentary, powered and distributed by AI.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. John Kaag’s Background and Path to Rebind

• Academic Roots and Public-Facing Writing
  • John is a philosopher specializing in 19th-century figures such as Nietzsche, James, Emerson, and Thoreau.
  • He moved from academic to trade books, blending memoir with philosophy, to make big ideas accessible.
  • Example works: American Philosophy: A Love Story, Hiking with Nietzsche.
  • "I decided that I don't want to necessarily write just for academic audiences, but start writing trade books." (02:51, John Kaag)

2. Genesis and Philosophy of Rebind

• From Entrepreneurial Inspiration to AI-Powered Learning
  • Sparked by a partnership with entrepreneur John Dubuque, who asked John Kaag to record audio commentary on Walden.
  • Core premise: AI distributes, but does not generate, original expert commentary, avoiding the "hallucinations" of generic LLMs.
  • Rebind emulates an Oxford-style tutorial: users interact with real commentary, not AI-simulated responses.
  • "Rebind is based on AI distributed original human commentary. ... You're getting attributable verbatim commentary back from an author..." (04:48, John Kaag)

3. How the Platform Works

• Tri-Voiced Interaction Model

  • Three voices: the user's, the commentator's (e.g., Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood), and the AI assistant, which stitches together queries with relevant expert commentary.
  • AI’s role is strictly retrieval and conversational weaving—not generative or interpretive.
  • "It's a sort of three way...conversation between a generic AI, the commentary, and then your questions." (07:11, John Kaag)

• Content Sourcing and Author Participation

  • Structured interviews with commentators can span 10-30 hours; some provide written or monologue commentaries.
  • Permission and accurate representation are pivotal; participating experts approve transcripts before use.
  • "We were not training an LLM like OpenAI...most commentators are comfortable having their words distributed verbatim..." (09:19, John Kaag)

4. The Rebind Study Bible: Innovations and Use Cases

• Interactive, Multimodal Engagement

  • Available as an iOS app; users can read, listen, and interact with the American Standard Bible.
  • "Podcast recasts": Chapters are interleaved with both biblical verses and expert commentary snippets for a dynamic, audio-first experience.
  • User questions are answered by referencing the New International Commentary (NIC), a leading 15,000-page Protestant scholarship.
  • "You can read the American Standard version of the Bible. You can listen to an interleave podcast at the beginning of every single chapter..." (13:12, John Kaag)

• Denominational Scope and Future Expansion

  • "It's a Protestant...mainstream Protestant commentary. And it has three...pillars: scholarly, evangelical, and personal." (16:05, John Kaag)
  • Not tied to any specific denomination, designed for both religious and secular engagement.
  • Plans to integrate more commentaries and personalized features, such as tailoring answers based on a user's bookshelf.
  • "We can scale the number of commentaries...we'll have dozens, hundreds, even thousands of books..." (16:05, John Kaag)

5. AI's Role and Its Impact on Scholarship

• Complementing, Not Replacing, Human Teachers

  • Rebind is especially well-suited for "daunting" texts that reward close, line-by-line reading (e.g., Ulysses, the Bible).
  • AI democratizes access to expertise previously limited to elite academic settings.
  • Potential danger of mimicry and "chameleon effects" in education if AI is misused—concerns over generic AI-generated study aids.
  • "We should think about these tools as tools, not as replacements for one on one engagement." (24:40, John Kaag)
  • "I think that this type of tool based around close reading is...more helpful than harmful." (25:54, John Kaag)

• Arguments to Skeptics: The Gutenberg Moment

  • AI reading tools as a historical shift comparable to the printing press.
  • Focus on expanding access to high-quality scholarship in an age of information overload.
  • "Either we can look away and let other people take the reins and then be surprised about the outcome ... or we can be involved in the transformation." (28:12, John Kaag)
  • "AI facilitates access and personalization in a way that has never been possible before at scale." (28:12, John Kaag)

• Transparency and Attribution

  • Core to Rebind: Always traceable, book-centered, and author-attributed, unlike many LLM use cases.
  • "What I really like about this is ... it's centering the books, it's centering the text and it's centering the, the scholars, them, themselves." (33:31, Caleb Zakrin)
  • Kaag draws a line between existential authority of human-derived answers and the rootless outputs of current LLMs:
  • "An LLM has no stake in the game. Zero. ... When you're asking an existential question ... you want answers from other human beings..." (34:50, John Kaag)

6. Current Challenges and the Road Ahead

• Navigating the Tech and Publishing Landscape
  • Publishing partners generally receptive once use case is explained; IP respect is critical.
  • Rapid tech evolution means constant rethinking of product features.
  • "Technology is evolving so very quickly. ... You can do things on ChatGPT 5.1 that were ... unimaginable six, six months ago." (32:00, John Kaag)
• Next Steps and Expansion
  • Aspirations to cover more spiritual and canonical texts (e.g., Varieties of Religious Experience, Taoism, Gnostic Gospels).
  • Personalization will deepen, making the tool adaptable for academic, scholarly, or devotional use.

7. Personal Motivations and Reflections

• A Turn Toward Accessibility and Outreach
  • Kaag's own health crisis led him to reevaluate how he shared ideas.
  • Entrepreneurship became a vehicle for public philosophy after his ability to "write in his head" was impacted.
  • "After my heart event...I couldn't do that anymore, which was pretty upsetting to me. And I began to think, if I can't do trade writing...what could I do that would be public facing?" (39:43, John Kaag)
• Rebind as Bridge Between Academia and Popular Learning
  • The platform has thousands of users and is growing quickly, especially through products like the Rebind Study Bible.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Rebind’s Core Value Proposition:
  "It's really a matter of showing them that we were not training. An LLM like OpenAI is getting into so much trouble for, and to show them the platform and ... the very narrow use case that it is being used for." (09:19, John Kaag)

• On AI’s Educational Impact:
  "We are in a moment as pivotal as the Gutenberg Press in terms of the written word and writing..." (28:12, John Kaag)

• On Annotation and Human Difference:
  "There’s never going to be ... an AI [that] could be developed that would replace ... a philosophical teacher. Philosophical teachers have bodies and histories..." (34:50, John Kaag)

• On Rebind’s User Experience:
  "At any point, you can ask questions from the text and be prompted to give reflections from the text. When you ask questions, the answers are gleaned from the 42 scholars who wrote the new International Commentary..." (13:12, John Kaag)

• On Democratizing Learning:
  "A lot of students don’t have the opportunity to have a one on one Oxford style tutorial with someone about a great book. And this provides some sort of close proxy..." (24:40, John Kaag)

• Personal Reflection:
  "After my heart event...I began to think, if I can't do trade writing...what could I do that would be public facing?... being able to touch and speak to a wider audience is something I've always really wanted to do and this is just an avenue to do it." (39:43, John Kaag)

Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:51 – John Kaag introduces his philosophical background and shift to trade/creative nonfiction.
• 04:48 – The inception and philosophy behind Rebind.
• 07:11 – The tri-voice system: User, commentator, AI.
• 09:19 – How Rebind secures and distributes expert commentary; getting marquee authors on board.
• 13:12 – Deep dive into how the Rebind Study Bible functions for users.
• 16:05 – Scope, denominational inclusivity, and expansion plans for the Study Bible.
• 22:25 – John Kaag discusses Rebind’s suitability for complex, widely interpreted texts.
• 24:40 – Will AI tools replace human scholars?
• 28:12 – Rebind’s promise: AI and the "Gutenberg moment."
• 32:00 – Challenges of keeping pace with technology and working with publishers.
• 34:50 – Why LLMs fall short on existential questions.
• 39:43 – Kaag's personal journey motivating his public-facing work.

Takeaways for Listeners

Rebind is an innovative tool aiming to blend the best of human scholarship with the accessibility and personalization made possible by AI. Rather than replacing the depth and authenticity of expert engagement with texts, it seeks to distribute and scale it—especially for challenging, canonical works like the Bible. The project’s ethos is rooted in transparency, attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Its development is shaped by both technological possibilities and a philosopher’s commitment to public learning.

Listeners interested in the intersection of AI, education, and the future of reading—especially as it relates to great books or sacred texts—will find this episode an insightful look into how technology can amplify, rather than erode, deep reading and scholarly tradition.

Explore Rebind Study Bible and other commentary-driven reading experiences at Rebind’s platforms, now highlighted on iOS. As AI and education continue to evolve, projects like Rebind offer a model for responsible and enriching engagement with both contemporary technology and age-old texts.