McIlroy "The Digital Horizon: How AI is Shaping Book Publishing"

This presentation was provided by Thad Mcllroy of The Future of Publishing, and served as the opening keynote during the "17th Annual NISO/BISG Forum: Artificial Intelligence in Book Publishing." The event was held during ALA Annual on June 28, 2024.

1. The Digital Horizon
How AI is Shaping Book Publishing
Presentation to the
17th Annual NISO/BISG Forum
AI in Book Publishing
June 28, 2024
Thad McIlroy
The Future of Publishing
San Francisco, CA

3. How AI is Shaping
Book Publishing
Some Observations

4. Intention for this presentation
To take you through some parts of my
AI & book publishing journey

5. A bit (too much) about me
I started studying AI in 1987 (again in 2015)
Focused on the digitization and automation of
publishing
Metadata obsession
Recommender systems and computational linguistics
Jumped into the current AI technology fall/22
Covering AI for Publishers Weekly and my blog
New book coming

6. https://leanpub.com/
ai-revolution-in-book-
publishing/

7. The Book Process
Released as (free) work in progress, and then on July 9:
1.Print, EPUB, PDF, and online web version
EPUB Accessibility 1.1 (W3C)
2.Ebooks in 32 languages
3.Audiobooks in Spanish, French and German
4.And 3 English dialects (American, British, Indian)
More formats than ever before!
Mostly courtesy of AI technologies

8. Can AI Be Useful
in Book Translation?
Presentation to the
BISG, and to our friends
June 25, 2024
Thad McIlroy
The Future of Publishing
San Francisco, CA

9. A Drop in the Bucket
In 2023
9,500 translations in the U.S. from
other languages
7,230 translations from English to
Spanish (in Spanish book markets)

10. Leanpub Translations

11. It gets better…
Meta has built an AI
model,NLLB-200,
the first to translate
across 200 different
languages with
state-of-the-art
quality…
https://ai.meta.com/blog/nl
lb-200-high-quality-
machine-translation/

12. SeamlessExpressive
AI research by Meta
https://seamless.metad
emolab.com/expressive

13. Definitions
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic.”
— Arthur C. Clarke

14. Waymo (owned by Google)
The streets of San Francisco.

15. Threats
Amazon overwhelmed Bias
Bubble Copyright
Corporate concentration Data, running out of
Design concerns Destroy or save humanity
Detecting AI in text or imagesEducation
Environment and energy Ethics
Fake content Fear of AI
Hallucinations, reliability Hate, disinformation, porn, spam
Hype cycle for AI Job loss and work generally
Litigation, endless Mismanagement of AI companies
Regulation Scammers generally
Search concerns and web Specific vendors, concerns

16. By all means…
… judge AI, and judge it harshly,
but do so from a place of knowledge.

17. Change
"We always overestimate the change that will occur
in the next two years and underestimate the change
that will occur in the next ten." — Bill Gates
"Every new idea must pass through three stages:
first, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed;
and third, it is accepted as self-evident.“
— Arthur Schopenhauer

18. Process Transformation
The initial impact of a new
technology is conservative…
•Authoring and AI
•Design and illustration Using AI
•Editorial and AI
•Production and AI
•Contracts, rights, royalties and AI
•Business management and AI
•Marketing and AI
•Sales & distribution and AI
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbQE
2YP8r80nPjEBBk8lZ462E0e3r4VQ7
Publishers Weekly AI webinar

19. Writers & Readers
The AI goal: Help writers find readers and
readers find writers
Publishers disintermediate the connection
between readers and the authors they love
AI-generated audio and video enhance the
interaction
Libraries are “safe spaces” for both writers &
readers

20. The Declining Value of Publishers
The three remaining advantages for book publishers:
1.Cachet
2.Access to major media
3.Access to bookstore distribution
And sometimes
3.5 Curated collections

21. Some Modest Next Steps
•“I believe the cost of getting to know AI,
really getting to know AI, is at least 3
sleepless nights.”
•“No amount of reading and research
can substitute for spending 10 hours using
the software.”
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22. AI in Libraries
https://issuu.com/against-the-
grain/docs/june_2024_v36-3/12

23. The Future
[email protected]
•Disruption ahead
•Impact: TBD

24. Joining us today