> It's very hard to do good recommendations -- even for Amazon/Goodreads! -- without people who care about what they're recommending.

But is that a property of the recommendations or of the circumstances under which they are received?

It's possible that the quality of a recommendation generated by an AI based on psychological profiles is superior, so that if it was followed, the book would be enjoyed. But it's not being followed, because it appears too unlikely and the reader doesn't trust the AI.

If that's true, the competitive advantage of the physical interaction would not actually be the recommendations themselves, but the atmosphere it creates which makes readers susceptible to listening to them.