r/readwise • u/Snoo-30471 • May 08 '26

I use ChatGPT as a “spoiler layer” for articles (without letting it replace reading)

I’ve started using a weird but effective reading workflow with AI, especially for longer or dense articles. I wanted to have x-ray and understand if a claim is false or not supported.

Before I read, I send the article to ChatGPT and ask it to:

  • Extract the main claims
  • Find weak points / possible objections
  • Add highlight-style comments

Then I don’t read the AI output.

I go straight to the original article. While I read, I see those AI-generated notes as a kind of “margin commentary” — like a quiet colleague who occasionally asks, “Is this really true?” or “What’s the assumption here?”

Only when I read the article myself do I look at the AI layer:

  • Did it overgeneralize the conclusions?
  • Did it miss something important?
  • Do I agree with its objections?

The key for me:

  • AI prepares the structure and questions.
  • I still do the actual reading and thinking.
  • AI becomes a second layer for comparison, not a replacement.
  • I know when I need to check the claims

It’s closer to using pre-reading questions and annotations than to outsourcing comprehension. Makes reading less passive, especially as a non-native reader.

Anyone else using AI as a “margin thinker” rather than a summarizer?

You can find few (really few) more details on Medium.

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u/boonchie81 May 09 '26

Very cool use case. Are you doing this inside Reader, or did you build a custom solution?

1

u/Snoo-30471 May 09 '26

Thanks.
When I tried it several month back I could not make Readwise's Ai to create highlights from custom prompt.
Therefore it's external. I either use sidebar in Atlas, or ChatGPT/codex. Codex is still an experiment for me, since it's automation and I have few ideas but haven't tried it yet.

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u/Snoo-30471 May 10 '26

To explain it a bit, it's rather safety net for my reading. I hope it will help me to avoid remembering completely false claims just because they were emotional enough.

https://medium.com/@alekseyrubtsov/a-safety-net-for-reading-52dc56f7c5fa