Open Road is launching an enterprise SaaS program, offering metadata-as-a-service to all publishers on an annual pay-per-title basis. The initiative is designed to “continually optimize metadata and maximize title discovery” by using machine learning and proprietary data on Open Road’s consumer audiences “to automatically and continually optimize metadata.” (The service is a good example of how machine learning can sometimes provide unambiguous benefit, without encroaching on anyone’s rights.) The service is also being provided to publishers who participate in the Open Road’s ebook backlist marketing service at no additional cost. But the SaaS offering gives Open Road a product that […]
AI
Authors Guild Adds AI Training to Model Book Contract
The Authors Guild has added a new clause to its model trade book contract that prohibits publishers from “using or sublicensing books under contract to train artificial intelligence technologies.” The clause is a response to recent concerns raised by authors and publishers regarding digital publishers like Findaway Voices and Bookwire, who have partnered with Apple for machine learning and Google Books for AI-narrated audiobooks, respectively. The AG writes that platforms and publishers have been “adding language to their terms that allows them to data mine books for use in training AI models that will inevitably compete with human-authored works.” The […]