OpenAI claimed it's "impossible" to build good AI models without using copyrighted data. An "ethically created" large language model and a giant AI dataset of public domain text suggest otherwise.
The conversation around artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for publishing and the wider creative industries is very much live. Over the last year, every corner of our industry has been confronted with the colossal innovation in the generative capability of this new technology, with little known as to how it will impact our sector.
In an emphatic 47-page opinion, federal judge John G. Koeltl found the Internet Archive infringed the copyrights of four plaintiff publishers by scanning and lending their books under a legally contested practice known as CDL (controlled digital lending). And after three years of contentious legal wrangling, the case wasn't even close. Read more
The backlash to Puffin Books' decision to update Roald Dahl's children's books has been swift and largely derisive. The publisher has been accused of "absurd censorship", "corporate safetyism" and "cultural vandalism." Read more
After authors including Kate Mosse and Philip Pullman warned that proposals to change the UK's copyright laws could be "devastating" for writers, the government has paused its plans.
The hoopla around the release of Sally Rooney's new novel on Tuesday - with bookshops opening early, and queues of shoppers eager to lay their hands on Beautiful World, Where Are You - has contributed to the image of a publishing industry in rude health. Last year had the highest sales in eight years. Read more
‘I always quote Kurt Vonnegut. He said in the early part of his career he was dismissed as a science fiction writer and that critics tend to put genre books, including sci-fi, in the bottom drawer of their desk... It's true. I get the New York Times every Sunday. In 37 novels, I've never had a stand-alone review. I'm always in the crime round-up.
A survey of 787 members of the Society of Authors (SoA) has found that a third of translators and a quarter of illustrators have lost work to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. Translators are also more likely to use AI to support their work, with 37% of respondents saying they have done so, followed by 25% of non-fiction writers.
The author Lynne Reid Banks, known for her novel The L-Shaped Room and her children's book series The Indian in the Cupboard, has died at the age of 94.
I launched my podcast Making It Up nearly three years ago with the goal of interviewing writers not for any particular work of theirs, but to talk to them about their lives. I didn't want to ask them what famous author they want to have dinner with or what their top five favorite books are ... yech. Read more
Until we have a mechanism to test for artificial intelligence, writers need a tool to maintain trust in their work. So I decided to be completely open with my readers
‘I will never stop writing. People often ask when I will retire, but I say it’s none of their business. Writing defines who I am. I love the feeling of holding a finished book in my hands, and then I can’t wait to start the great adventure of writing the next one.’