AI publishing is already here

Since artificial intelligence entered the market with tools like ChatGPT and similar ones, the publishing industry has felt a shiver down its spine. While it is clear that AI use in some fields is essential for innovation, it quickly became evident that it would disrupt the creative sector, from literature to design. As predicted by editors and writers, AI-driven publishing houses are already among us: Microsoft and TikTok have launched 8080 Books and 8th Note Press, respectively, and both companies have heavily invested in AI. Microsoft, for example, has formed a particular alliance with OpenAI and announced that with its publishing house 8080 Books, it aims to «accelerate the publishing process, reducing the gap between the final manuscript and the book’s release on the market». Of course, the tech giant’s investment in AI-powered publishing has already sparked controversy. The presence of artificial intelligence in people's lives is starting to become more and more intrusive: in the last few days, Meta announced that it will soon include AI-managed users on Facebook and Instagram. As many point out in the same online spaces that will soon be taken by storm by computerized accounts, at this rate social is in danger of becoming less and less social, just as publishing houses are in danger of becoming less and less creative. 

Until now, some of the criticism directed at AI by journalists and editors has focused on using human-created material to automate tools like ChatGPT without addressing copyright—platforms were “trained” using content already available online without consulting the authors. Books, articles, and documents produced in recent years have been fed to AI to provide updates and necessary information for its functionality. Now, publishing houses like Microsoft’s 8080 Books are gearing up to create new productions with the help of artificial intelligence. At this rate, material already created by journalists and creatives will be chewed up and repackaged without their input or, worse still, without them even knowing. As reported by Post, the publishing house and start-up Spines has secured a massive 16 billion investment to begin optimizing book production through AI and aims to publish 8,000 books in 2025.

Even Amazon has already jumped on the AI publishing bandwagon, starting with travel guides. On the platform of the world’s most famous retailer, an insistent quantity of travel collections, clearly created by a computer, has surfaced—it’s usually apparent from the guide’s excessively long title, SEO-styled to appear higher in searches—often accompanied by equally fake reviews, generated by AI-driven bots. However, while creating books, studies, and articles with AI assistance is criticized worldwide by industry professionals (as in the case of American comedian Sarah Silverman, who filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Meta for copyright infringement), there are instances where tools like ChatGPT are handy for publishing, such as for translation checks and text editing before printing. At this point, we can only wonder when, in the near future, we’ll walk into a bookstore and find an “AI” section, perhaps next to the “author books” shelf. In that moment, it will be up to us and our money to decide which cause to support.