All Posts

Chat with your PDF, but if it was actually useful

Most chat with your PDF tools are a facade. To do real research, you need to be able to have a deep conversation with your paper, not just a shallow Q&A.

The "chat with your PDF" feature has become a popular way to showcase the power of large language models. You upload a document, ask a few questions, and get answers. It feels like magic. But for serious research, this kind of shallow interaction is a gimmick, not a solution.

At Open Paper, we believe that true understanding comes from a deep, ongoing conversation with the research, not a fleeting Q&A session. That's why we're building a tool that facilitates a much richer, in-document workflow that goes beyond simple chat.

The Problem with "Chat with your PDF"

Most "chat with your PDF" tools operate at a distance. You're in a separate chat window, asking questions of a bot that has "read" the paper. This creates a few problems:

1. It pulls you out of the context of the paper. You're no longer reading and engaging with the document directly. Instead, you're relying on a summary from an AI.
2. It encourages shallow questions. The interface is designed for quick, simple queries, not for deep, exploratory thinking.
3. It's hard to verify the AI's claims. You have to constantly switch back and forth between the chat and the PDF to see if the AI is accurately representing the source material.

This all leads to a superficial understanding of the research. You might get the gist of the paper, but you'll miss the nuances, the connections, and the deeper insights that come from careful reading and annotation.

A Better Way: Deep, In-Document Conversation

Open Paper takes a different approach. We believe that the best way to understand a paper is to stay in the paper. Our tool is designed to facilitate a deep, in-document conversation that keeps you close to the source material.

Here's how it works:

1. Highlight and Annotate Directly. As you read, you can highlight passages and make annotations directly on the PDF. This is the first step in building your understanding of the paper. Annotations become first-party citizens in your knowledge base, making them readily retrievable.
2. Intelligent Inline Menu. When you highlight a passage, an intelligent inline menu appears. From here, you can add the selection to your chat with the AI, create an annotation, or save a quote. This keeps you in the flow of your reading.
3. Trustworthy AI Chat with Context Linking. When you do chat with the AI, every response includes citations that link back to the original paper. This makes it easy to verify the AI's claims and dive deeper into the topics that interest you.

This approach transforms the "chat with your PDF" feature from a gimmick into a powerful research tool. It's not just about getting answers; it's about building a deep, nuanced understanding of the research.

The Future of Research is Deep Work

We believe that the future of research is not about offloading our thinking to AI. It's about using AI to help us think more deeply and effectively. By keeping you in the document and facilitating a rich, ongoing conversation with the research, Open Paper is designed to do just that.