Like all publishers, we’re warily watching the latest AI news
This year, the most frequently raised questions among the authors and journalists who are part of our online community involve the use of “AI”—so we write about the latest media-related AI news with some regularity in our weekly Front Edge columns. In May, for example, we posted a short story about the Chicago Sun-Times fiasco with AI.
Our publishing house team has explained many, many times: Yes, we regularly use AI as one of many research tools we employ, but we use it following best practices across our industry.
And this week, the major news in publishing was the huge settlement with Anthropic. If you care to read more, here just a few of the major news outlets reporting this milestone:
Washington Post: AI firm Anthropic reaches landmark $1.5B copyright deal with book authors
The Guardian: AI startup Anthropic agrees to pay $1.5bn to settle book piracy lawsuit
NPR: Anthropic settles with authors in first-of-its-kind AI copyright infringement lawsuit
CNN: Anthropic tells US judge it will pay $1.5 billion to settle author class action
Yes, some of these stories are repetitive, but not all readers can access all websites, so we’ve provided four sources.
Also, as the Founding Editor of our publishing house, I was invited this year to write the “Religion Story Ideas” monthly columns for The International Association of Religion Jounalists. Even before that news about Anthropic broke, I had posted the IARJ’s September 1 column with a lead item about Embracing (and Condemning) AI, recommending to the IARJ’s hundreds of religion journalists around the world that they pay close attention to AI news as it affects religious groups.
This Front Edge Publishing column is simply a helpful way to share these news links more widely with our ever-expanding circle of writers around the world.
If you’ve got questions about AI—or AI news to share that will interest other media professionals—please contact us. We’d like to hear from you.