"The cost of doing business"?

This article by Wired's Adam Morgan about the increasing covert use of AI within book publishers is a grim read - not least because it chimes with what I've heard anecdotally about another publisher, suggesting that this is very much an industry-wide trend.

Staff there are being strongly encouraged to integrate AI use into every aspect of their roles, yet given no guidance how to do this ethically and efficiently, and no indication as to the overall purpose. Morgan observes: "Most of the industry professionals I spoke with just want publishers to provide clear AI usage guidelines and disclosures, at the very least, to mitigate the current chaos." This is vital so that staff know where they stand, but also so that publishers who cancel author contracts and printing due to unacknowledged generative AI use can't be accused of flagrant hypocrisy.

Two points are particularly worth drawing out of Morgan's article.

First, it's important that blame for this trend should be apportioned correctly; it's unfair to cast aspersions about employees' ethics when they're backed into a corner by their employers and circumstances, left with little choice if they want to keep their jobs. As one member of staff puts it: "It's skeleton crews everywhere you look. Large teams have been reduced to just five or six people, give or take, and we're doing double or triple the number of books. No wonder people are taking shortcuts. I don't judge them for that. I judge the company for shoving the shortcuts down our throats and saying 'Do this or we fall behind'."

Second, and relatedly, industry expert Dan Sinykin points out: "The C-suites at Big Five publishing companies have more in common with the C-suites at other major American companies than they do with the editors and publicists and translators who work for them. They're always looking for ways to maximize profit, and right now they're trying to see what they can get away with before there's a revolt." In other words, it's money men who are pulling the strings and calling the shots, not people with a genuine passion for books. As such, it's hardly surprising (albeit nevertheless enormously dispiriting) that short-term profits are being prioritised ahead of everything and everyone else: authors, readers, staff, propriety, the industry's future.