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The Digital Elephant in the Room

AI in Publishing Law and Business

Explore the various ways in which the explosion of generative AI has transformed and challenged writers, publishers and others in the publishing industry.

This workshop will explore the various ways in which the explosion of generative AI in recent years has transformed and challenged writers, publishers and others in the publishing industry. Because of the rapid development and adoption of generative AI platforms, many participants in the creative industries are working with the technology in new ways, which brings with it questions of how business practices and the law should react.

• To what extent should writers, illustrators/artists, publishers and other industry participants legally and ethically use AI?
• Is it OK for writers to use AI to help them generate plots and characters?
• Whose job is it to ensure that copyrighted works are not used for generative AI training purposes?
• If publishers use copyrighted works to train AI, should they pay a license fee to authors?

This workshop will cover these issues and many more. Particular areas of focus will include:

1. copyright law and AI, including meaningful and robust AI clauses in publishing contracts;
2. impact of generative AI on publishing-adjacent work like audio narration, illustration/jacket design and translation; and,
3. authors' and artists' ethical use of AI in creating new works. 

Jacqui Lipton is an attorney, law professor and literary agent with a particular interest in copyright and publishing contracts. She is the author of Law and Authors: A Legal Handbook for Writers (California University Press, 2020) and is a frequent presenter on topics revolving around publishing and the law. Further information about Jacqui is available at jdlipton.com.