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And the Walls Came A-Tumbling Down

AI and the democratization of publishing

Amy L. Bernstein
The Bigger Picture

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Cosimo de Medici. Wikimedia Commons.

And so it goes. A company called Spines, which has raised at least $16 million in venture funding, will use AI to fast-track the process of proofreading, designing a cover, and optimizing metadata for books that it will get out the door in three weeks or so — for $5,000 or less (possibly much less).

Microsoft’s new 8080 Books imprint also will rely on AI to “hasten the diffusion of knowledge” by publishing “original research, ideas, and insights at the intersection of science, technology, and business.” They’re inviting nontraditional authors (read: non-writers) into the fold.

These are far from the only players to emerge in this lightning-fast evolution of the publishing industry.

You might view these developments as clear evidence that AI is the fox that has been welcomed into the henhouse, where it will devour all the little chicks and then go searching for more.

You might decry the further commodification of books as just another consumer good to be produced fast, at low cost, for targeted audiences looking to buy and then discard the next new thing.

In any case, AI’s encroachment on the authoring process is beginning to feel inevitable. What’s to prevent Spines from moving right along…

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