AI dominates debate at IPG Autumn Conference

"AI is enormously exciting, but it is a very flawed tool,” consultant George Walkley told attendees at this year’s AI-focused IPG Autumn Conference, attended by more than 400 people.

Walkley led five workshops throughout the day and discussed how the industry can adopt and adapt to the changing landscape. He covered the rise of AI and highlighted the emphasis and investment that the IPG has placed on researching and helping the industry come to terms with its implications. Walkley discussed whether AI “should” be used by publishing and covered some of its useful applications. 

“The output of many of these systems is not good enough to be trusted without human beings looking at it and being expert enough to say what is good and what is not,” Walkley added. “That requires expertise, and hopefully, many people in this room have that expertise." He also warned against AI removing entry-level jobs because it could affect the talent pipeline, causing issues when “high-status” workers retire. 

Walkley then introduced the CPD certified AI training course developed by the IPG, which will begin in October and will help participants identify the opportunities and tackle the challenges of AI. The sessions will be tailored to the needs of independent publishers and will include hands-on sessions exploring AI tools. 

Walkley was followed by Searsha Sadek, founder of Shimmr, a company that helps publishers market and advertise books using AI. Sadek talked about how the company uses AI to analyse publishers’ content to create advertising and identify new audiences for it. Bel Youldon, commercial director at David & Charles, discussed her experience working with Shimmr to create ads for D&C’s backlist titles. 

The AI focus continued throughout the day, with Helen Kogan talking about how Kogan Page has been working to understand the challenges and create a framework to protect content. She explained that Kogan Page has not yet reached the stage of exploring the opportunities of AI, adding that the first stage is to understand and deal with the various challenges it presents for an independent publisher. 

The future and current challenges of AI was also covered by Sarah Faulder, chief executive of Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS), and James Bennett of the Copyright Licensing Agency, who discussed the implications of AI for licensing and data mining. Crook and Bennett discussed the government’s recent U-turn on plans to allow access to copyrighted works without the permission of the owner. They highlighted that the landscape is still uncertain and that AI and copyright is still "a very live issue".