The industry needs to take a step back from the knee-jerk “AI can never compete with human creativity” and the “AI will steal our jobs, destroy our culture and eat our children for breakfast” nonsense, and take a look at how AI can enhance human creativity and productivity.
Perplexity AI, the AI-powered search engine, announced on Thursday the expansion of its Publisher Programme, adding over a dozen new media partners, including the Los Angeles Times and The Independent, ADWEEK, Blavity, DPReview, Gear Patrol, Lee Enterprises, MediaLab, Mexico News Daily Minkabu Infonoid, NewsPicks, Prisa Media, RTL Germany brands stern and ntv and World History Encyclopedia.
Launched in July, the Publisher Programme involves sharing ad revenue from interactions referencing a publisher’s content. The new partners, from regions as far apart as Ibero-America and Japan, “representing over 25 countries across four continents” per the press release, join existing partners that include TIME, Der Spiegel, Entrepreneur, WordPress(dot)com, The Texas Tribune, and Fortune.
This despite ongoing legal disputes with News Corp-owned publishers the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post over alleged copyright breaches.
Reasons for Publisher Interest Despite Legal Issues
This interest can be attributed to several factors:
- Revenue Sharing: Publishers benefit financially from ad interactions involving their content.
- API Access: The API allows publishers to integrate Perplexity’s technology into their platforms, enhancing user engagement.
- Data Analytics: Access to analytics tools helps publishers track content performance and trends.
- Innovative Collaboration: Publishers see value in collaborating with an AI-powered search engine to stay competitive in the digital landscape.
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Andy Konwinski, Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho. The company is based in San Francisco and uses large language models to provide answers to user queries, with the slogan “Answers you can trust”.
Perplexity has quickly grown, reaching a valuation of over $1 billion and attracting significant investments from notables like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia.
The Publisher Programme initiative aims to support publishers while enhancing the quality and comprehensiveness of Perplexity’s search responses.
In a press release, Jessica Chan, Perplexity’s new Head of Publisher Partnerships, explained: “We would not be able to serve factual, valuable answers without news organisations continuing to report on different topics.”
Chan is best known for building LinkedIn’s content partner programme.
Personally, I’m not too excited by Perplexity AI, at least in its “free” incarnation. Sure, it beats Google for my research for TNPS and for my school projects, but so does every other free AI option I’ve tried. That said, if I need a short answer to a short question, I still default to Google search. I don’t see Google’s dominance as a simple search engine being challenged any time soon.
But of course, “any time soon” in the era of AI does not have the same meaning as say, five, let alone ten or twenty years ago.
The Bigger Picture: Lessons for Academic and Trade Book Publishing
Perplexity AI’s Publisher Programme offers valuable insights for both academic and trade book publishing sectors. The initiative highlights the importance of quality content and the willingness of AI companies to invest in it. Here are some potential future scenarios for book publishing:
Academic Publishing
Academic publishers have already begun to embrace AI technologies. For example, Springer Nature uses AI for tasks like manuscript screening and keyword generation. Elsevier and Wiley are also leveraging AI to enhance search and discovery, streamline peer review processes, and detect plagiarism. These partnerships demonstrate how AI can improve efficiency and accuracy in academic publishing, making it easier for researchers to access and share knowledge.
And of course, publishers like Wiley have been busily inking lucrative deals with AI companies for limited LLM training.
Trade Publishing
Trade publishers are experimenting with AI in various ways, particularly in narration and translation. AI-driven tools are being used to create audiobooks and translate texts into multiple languages.
Companies like Audible and Amazon are investing in AI to produce high-quality narrations, while translation services are becoming more efficient and cost-effective. This allows publishers to reach a global audience more easily.
Untapped Potential in Text-Based Publishing
Despite these advancements, there is still significant untapped potential in text-based publishing. AI can assist in areas such as content creation, editing, and marketing. For instance, AI tools can help authors generate ideas, improve their writing, and even suggest plot twists. Publishers can use AI to analyse market trends and target specific audiences more effectively.
And for ebooks, there is the prospect, especially in fields like education, where texts can be updated by AI in real time as new discoveries, inventions and events arise.
Future Scenarios
- Enhanced Content Creation: AI can help authors brainstorm ideas, outline plots, and even write drafts. This can speed up the content creation process and allow authors to focus on refining their work.
- Automated Editing: AI-powered editing tools can catch grammatical errors, suggest style improvements, and ensure consistency throughout a manuscript. This can reduce the workload on human editors and improve the overall quality of published works.
- Personalised Marketing: AI can analyse reader preferences and market trends to create personalised marketing campaigns. Publishers can target specific demographics with tailored promotions, increasing the chances of reaching the right audience.
- Global Reach: AI translation tools can help publishers translate books into multiple languages quickly and accurately. This can expand the global reach of books and make them accessible to a wider audience.
- Interactive Books: AI can be used to create interactive and immersive reading experiences. For example, AI can generate dynamic content that changes based on reader choices, making books more engaging and interactive.
By embracing AI, both academic and trade publishers can, at risk of upsetting the Luddite fringe intent on keeping publishing firmly grounded in the twentieth century, unlock new opportunities and improve their processes. The success (so far, with the caveat there is a law suit or two still to settle) of Perplexity’s Publisher Programme shows that collaboration between AI companies and publishers can lead to innovative solutions and mutual benefits.
As AI continues to evolve, the possibilities for book publishing are endless, and needn’t be limited to the academic, audiobook and translation sectors.
The industry needs to take a step back from the knee-jerk “AI can never compete with human creativity” wishful thinking and the “AI will steal our jobs, destroy our culture and eat our children for breakfast” nonsense, and take a look at how AI can enhance human creativity and productivity. If we are willing to adapt and learn, that is.
This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsletter.
