On Wednesday, Publishers Weekly presented, “Artificial Intelligence: Revolution and Opportunity in Trade Publishing,” an ambitious web conference on the latest wave of disruption to hit the industry. The event was hosted and moderated by Thad McIlroy, digital publishing analyst, along with Peter Brantley, director of online strategy for the University of California Davis Library.
“If there was a single, top-level takeaway from the wide range of speakers, it is that AI can be good for the book business, despite serious questions and potential challenges,” notes Andrew Albanese, PW executive editor.
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Penguin Random House ex-CEO Markus Dohle opened the webinar and sought to assure industry members that AI will not prove the death of publishing.
“Dohle loves to say this is the best time for publishing since Gutenberg,” Albanese tells me.
“The point he often makes is that you can’t stop progress. The idea of reading words on a page and sharing stories is ageless, he noted, and quoting Margaret Atwood, is ‘hardwired’ in us all.”