What I've Been Reading

As promised (because or despite the news), some interesting things I’ve read about publishing recently , followed by some I’ve read (or listened to) for fun.

Publishing Related

• Brian Merchant’s Blood In The Machine newsletter is great, and his most recent one is interesting. I do have a quibble, though: Merchant notes that publishers are refusing AI, citing the recent Ballard controversy. I don’t agree. Those same publishers are also partnering with AI video companies and hiring AI analysts and engineers. What’s emerging is a dichotomy between what is deemed creative (AI for authors is bad) and what functional (AI for people who work in publishing is fine). It’s not entirely coherent when it’s okay/not okay to use AI right now, but I do see this creative/not-creative line being drawn in thicker as the weeks pass by. And this relates to my recent argument the “culture” or “highbrow art” will be seen as necessarily ‘human’, free of the taint of AI, and what might have been previously…