The Association of American Publishers submitted recommendations regarding AI to the Trump administration, in response to a request for information while the White House develops an Artificial Intelligence Action Plan. The AAP’s letter states that the action plan should protect copyright and intellectual property, “embrace and encourage” licensing and partnership between companies, and reject tech companies’ call for “a bloated fair use defense and an unworkable ‘opt-out’ regime.” It also calls on the White House to use law enforcement to combat pirate sites and direct the DOJ and FTC to “use their unfair competition authority against companies that use and […]
AI
AI At London Book Fair
Industry panels discussing AI are a staple of book fair programming these days, and the London Book Fair has followed suit. One session reviewed policy developments in the US and UK and there have been multiple discussions of the ethics of AI in audiobooks. On Tuesday, Porter Anderson with Publishing Perspectives spoke with Maria Pallante, president and ceo of the Association of American Publishers, and Dan Conway, ceo of the Publishers Association, about the state of AI policy-making. The takeaway was that both the US and the UK are in holding patterns as they wait for court decisions and legislation. […]
Wiley Offers AI Guidelines For Writers
Wiley released guidelines for book authors about how to use AI in their work. According to the company, publisher guidance around AI use has been requested by the majority of researchers in a recent study the publisher conducted “and were informed by extensive interviews with authors, editorial staff and AI experts.” “Writers and researchers are already using AI tools, whether publishers like it or not,” Wiley evp & general manager, research & learning Jay Flynn said. “At Wiley, we’d rather embrace this shift than fight it. Our recent study shows these technologies will be everywhere within two years, and we […]
ElevenLabs Allows Authors to Create AI Audiobooks for Free
ElevenLabs has launched ElevenReader Publishing, a service for authors to create AI-narrated audiobooks for free, which will be listenable in the ElevenReader app, which they assert has “hundreds of thousands of listeners globally.” Authors with a paid ElevenLabs subscription can export those audio files to use on different platforms, but the company cautions, “please note that many other audiobook platforms like Audible, Apple Books, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble may not accept AI-narrated audiobooks, so check each platform’s terms and conditions before attempting distribution.” (Spotify recently announced that it was accepting titles from ElevenLabs.) Authors can upload text and choose […]
Hoopla Removes Summary Titles, AI-Generated Content
Hoopla is working to remove AI-generated books from its platform, which provides ebooks to libraries, 404 Media reports. According to an email the company sent to libraries, they have removed some publishers and authors that provide “poor-quality and/or poor-quality AI-generated content.” They also told librarians that they are removing all summary titles “with some exceptions” (like CliffNotes), updating their “collection development policy to ensure we adhere to and evolve with industry best practices,” and giving librarians the option of contacting Hoopla directly.
Meta Reached Out To Publishers To License Books But Gave Up
Newly released documents in the Kadrey v. Meta copyright infringement suit state that the tech giant reached out to publishers to license books for AI training, but ultimately “paused” that effort. In a deposition, director of business development, AI partnerships Sy Choudhury said that in early 2023 Meta looked into licensing “fiction book data, scientific textbook data, normal textbook data, images, videos” but the work to license “fiction books, nonfiction books, and coding” was stopped in April 2023. In another deposition, Alexander Boesenberg, who works in business development and AI partnerships, said, “We got to a point where we decided […]