The outlets behind a widely-circulated AI-created booklist, the majority of which were fake titles, have issued statements apologizing for the piece. The Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer, which both ran the “Heat Index” supplement that contained the list, noted that it was created by and syndicated from King Features, a division of Hearst. Neither paper’s newsroom staff had anything to do with it, they said. A spokesperson for King Features said in a statement, “King Features has a strict policy with our staff, cartoonists, columnists, and freelance writers against the use of AI to create content. “The Heat Index summer supplement […]
AI
Newspapers Run Fake Summer Reading List
At least two major newspapers recently ran an AI-generated summer reading round up that featured several books that do not exist. The Philadelphia Inquirer (on May 15) and the Chicago Sun-Times (on May 18) both published a special insert, Heat Index: Your Best of Summer Guide, which included a list of 15 boks and brief descriptions. There are no publication records for nine of the listed books, including those by Isabel Allende, Andy Weir, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Min Jin Lee, Rumaan Alam, Rebecca Makkai, Maggie O’Farrell, Percival Everett, and Delia Owens. Confusingly, a few of the books at the end […]
UK Maintains Copyright Exhaustion Laws, Rejects Tech Transparency Amendment
The UK won’t change its post-Brexit IP rights exhaustion laws, after a lengthy consultation with stakeholders. According to the current and future regime, which is preferred by authors and publishers, copyrighted goods such as books that are sold in the UK or European Economic Area can be re-sold in the territories. The move avoids cheaper-priced books from outside of the EEA coming into the UK and undercutting the market. “This is an important step in maintaining the strength of our world-leading intellectual property framework,” Minister for AI and Digital Government Feryal Clark said.” The decision we’ve taken not only gives […]
Audible Rolls Out AI Narration Technology for Publishers, Preps for AI Translation
Audible officially announced their initiative to offer services for “fully integrated, end-to-end” AI narration and production for audiobooks, including machine translation. Publishers can choose from more than 100 voices in English, Spanish, French, and Italian, “with multiple accent and dialect options, and will be able to access voice upgrades for their titles as our technology evolves.” “Audible believes that AI represents a momentous opportunity to expand the availability of audiobooks with the vision of offering customers every book in every language, alongside our continued investments in premium original content,” Audible ceo Bob Carrigan. “We’ll be able to bring more stories […]
White House Fires Copyright Office Director; Part 3 of AI Report Released
The Trump Administration fired Shira Perlmutter, the top copyright official in the US. The move comes two days after the White House fired Carla Hayden, the head of the Library of Congress, which maintains the Copyright Office. Hayden appointed Perlmutter to the position in 2020. Perlmutter received an email on Saturday reading, “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately,” the AP reports. As a presidential appointee, the executive branch has the power to dismiss the librarian of congress. The register of copyrights, however, is a legislative position. Congress could […]
In Praise of Copyright at the AAP Annual Meeting
The AAP held its annual meeting via Zoom on Thursday, with lengthy conversations about copyright, AI, and how the publishing industry can navigate the current moment. In the lightest part of the presentation, a keynote conversation between Jenna Bush Hager and Random House president Sanyu Dillon, Bush Hager discussed the beginning of her imprint, Thousand Voices. “I had dug into the reasons sometimes these ventures don’t work,” she said. “I realized that we, after six years of running a national book club, had a lot of assets, and had a lot of contact with readers that would help us figure […]