My Kindle was sitting unused, so I decided to see whether AI could help me find a new use for it. I wanted to create a custom app that could cover a range of uses and be controlled by an AI agent on my MacBook.
I started with a small goal: use my own image as the Kindle's screensaver. Once that worked, I asked the agent to build an app that could cycle through a collection of photos.
We called the project KindleCTL. On my Kindle, I open "Photo Slideshow" from the same screen where I choose my books. It cycles through ten photos, showing each for four minutes. When I want to read, I exit the slideshow and return to my books.
I first tried GPT-5.6 Sol with reasoning effort set to Extra High. It wrote code to connect to the Kindle but couldn't resolve an error that prevented it from storing data on the device. Then I tried Fable 5.1 and Opus 5.5, but Anthropic's cybersecurity safeguards blocked each attempt after two prompts. Finally, I tried GPT-6 Astra with reasoning effort set to High. We were able to jailbreak the Kindle.
