Many scholars are using AI in their book and journal submissions, but they are not being fully transparent about it, according to a new survey by Oxford University Press. Looking specifically at books rather than scholarly journals, about 46 percent of authors who published a book in the last year used AI in crafting their manuscripts. Eight percent of authors fully disclosed their AI use while 39 percent did not fully disclose it. The most common uses of AI in books were “editing and writing assistance, finding relevant sources and literature, references and citation management, and translation.” A quarter of […]
AI
Trump Administration Files Statement in Support of OpenAI in Copyright Suits
The Department of Justice took the highly unusual step of filing a “statement of interest” in support of OpenAI and Microsoft in the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the New York Times. (Though they also declare in a footnote, “The United States’ legal arguments apply similarly to all parties in this litigation and the related cases, including book authors and publishers.”) It’s a policy position presented in the language of a legal paper. Their official position, flowing from Dear Leader’s executive order on “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” is that the development of LLMs is super-duper transformative, […]
Google Launches Licensed Version of Applying AI to Individual eBooks
On Thursday Google launched a licensed platform called Expert Intelligence that makes participating books available for interrogation by an AI chatbot through the search giant’s Gemini Notebook. Based on the idea that “readers return to their favorite books repeatedly, and continue to apply the author’s lessons to their own life,” the feature “makes it simple for you to ask questions about the book and receive responses grounded directly in that book. You can also use Gemini Notebook to help you understand books in new ways, for example, by generating Infographics, Audio Overviews, Quizzes, or more from the book.” Users can […]
Academic Publishers Develop Guidelines, Screening Tools for AI Use
Just as booksellers are inundated with AI slop and publishing is reckoning with suspicions of AI-written books, academic publishing is facing similar issues—and their approaches to the problem, including vetting tools and guidelines for authors, can inform and inspire trade publishers. Submissions to academic journals have ballooned, and, while it’s impossible to prove, many of the papers have the signs of AI, including mistakes and authors with a large number of publications in just a few years, medical journal editor Itamar Ashkenazi said in a recent presentation for the Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE). Generative AI can be useful in […]
Amazon is Scanning and Destroying Rare Books to Train AI
A shipment of rare books arrived at an Amazon warehouse that is dedicated to scanning them for AI training, 404 Media found in an investigation. 404 coordinated with an anonymous bookseller to place an Apple AirTag in one book that was part of a shipment of 1,000 that ended up at a Las Vegas Amazon warehouse known as LAS8. Part of that warehouse goes by the name VGT3, which has a logo on its entrance of a Tyrannosaurus Rex holding a book. According to posts in online forums, employees at this facility say “all we do is scan books,” 404 […]
Harper Reports Strong Fourth Quarter, Record Full-Year Sales
News Corp announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2026, with fourth quarter publishing sales at $566 million, up $72 million (or 14.6 percent) from a year ago, “driven by higher physical and digital book sales, which included strength in general books, the UK and children’s publishing.” Digital sales were up 12 percent in the period, with audiobook sales growing 16 percent, “driven by strong growth at both Spotify and Audible.” EBITDA of $57 million was up $7 million from a year ago, with foreign exchange contributing $3 million. Costs rose in line with sales, with the […]