Some of the largest publishing companies in the Netherlands have joined to create a platform that gives publishers control over licensing their books to AI companies. Publishers VBK, WPG, Lannoo, and Maven and distributor CB have launched Bookpact.ai in an effort to keep rightsholders in control of how their books are used by tech companies. With authors’ consent, publishers can specify on Bookpact which titles may be used, and for what licensed usage (training, translation, summarization, etc.). “AI companies then submit offers for targeted licenses on a per-title basis,” they explain in a release, and publishers can choose to accept […]
AI
Granta Ends Prize Partnerships After AI Fiasco
Granta magazine has ended its “external publishing partnerships,” including one with the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, after accusations that prize-winning stories were written with AI. As part of their partnership, Granta published five winning stories online, though magazine editors didn’t have anything to do with their selection. “Granta editors were not involved with these stories or their selection beyond copy-editing them upon receipt,” a spokesperson for the magazine said at the time. In a release, Granta stated, “For the sake of our own editorial integrity, the Granta Trust board has now taken the decision that we will no longer engage […]
Wiley Expects AI Sales to Multiply
On a call with investors this week, Wiley gave additional information about their partnerships for AI development. As reported, the company made $49 million through AI licenses in the 2026 fiscal year, up from about $40 million in 2025 and $23 million in 2024, and they expect to grow to more than $50 million next year. Recurring revenue was $1 million in the year ending in 2025, $8 million in 2026, and is expected to double or triple next year. “We expect a strong growth trajectory from there as we uncover more data set opportunities in our portfolio, rollout intelligence […]
Google Play Books Launches AI Insights Feature–With A Little Time to Opt Out
Google Play Books will launch a generative AI Book Insights feature — their version of an in-book chatbot — which they call a “reading companion.” It will allow readers to get a recap or ask a chatbot questions about the text. Starting July 6, it will be automatically enabled for most English-language books and will be available for books in other languages in the future. Unlike Amazon’s similar “Ask this Book” feature, launched late last year without advance notice or permission, and imposed by fiat with no escape, Google’s feature is opt out. Though it’s not a lot of advance […]
Storytel Launches AI Companion Feature
Storytel has launched Storytel Genie, an AI-powered discovery tool that “can explain why a specific book will resonate, help [users] pick their next story, and generate recaps when a listener has lost the thread of a story in progress.” Functions also include a chat interface, and use “leading language models from Google Gemini, OpenAI, and Anthropic with Exa’s real-time knowledge capabilities.” The tool launches for Swedish subscribers today, and will be fully availability across Sweden by July 1 and in other markets starting in August. “Storytel Genie is the most powerful set of features we’ve built and really defines the next chapter at Storytel, […]
Court Divides Authors’ Suit Against Six AI Companies
A group of authors cannot include six AI companies in one lawsuit for copyright infringement, a judge ordered. Plaintiffs John Carreyrou, Lisa Barretta, Philip Shishkin, Jane Adams, Matthew Sacks, and Michael Kochin, must sue Anthropic, Google, xAI, Perplexity, Apple, and NVIDIA as individual defendants—as those companies requested. Judge P. Casey Pitts in the Northern District of California severed the suit, noting that there was not enough commonality or evidence of a conspiracy between the tech companies to warrant joining them into one action. “Each defendant trained on a mixture of different data repositories at different times between 2020 and 2024,” the […]