While I focus on Technology, Innovation, and Publishing, because I have a platform, I also flag items that I think are important, which you might have missed, and try to include a bunch of resources & opportunities. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter.
Important Items
The Top Threat To Americans’ Health Is Not A Virus. It’s Disinformation
By 2014, childhood vaccination rates in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and other wealthy West L.A. County communities had fallen so low, they were on par with South Sudan…. Whereas individual tweets of the truth rarely reached more than 1,000 people, the top 1% of false news spread to between 1K and 100K people. After COVID started, a Carnegie Mellon team analyzed >200M tweets about coronavirus, and found of the top 50 influential retweeters, 82% were bots. It is now becoming difficult to even study the problem: In the fall of 2023, the Washington Post reported that under pressure from conservative members of Congress, “academics, universities, and government agencies are overhauling or ending research programs designed to counter the spread of online misinformation.” Even after safe and effective vaccines were widely available, deaths in the U.S. continued to climb because tens of millions of Americans refused to be vaccinated – Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker estimates that between June 2021 and March 2022, about 234K U.S. deaths could have been prevented with primary series vaccination.
Research shows that even mild COVID-19 can lead to the equivalent of seven years of brain aging
Technology
AI Is Driving a New Surge of Sham “Books” on Amazon
https://authorsguild.org/news/ai-driving-new-surge-of-sham-books-on-amazon/
Amazon’s Pirated Copy of MAID
A self-published “Biography” is a slightly reworded version of my first memoir. By @stepville
https://stephanieland.substack.com/p/amazons-pirated-copy-of-maid
AI meets Old Masters in the fight to authenticate paintings
Machine learning can be the difference between a charming picture and a masterpiece worth millions
https://www.ft.com/content/101f6fde-0817-4fc6-9fe8-2b8d4b0f2c65
New Amazon generative AI tool rolling out to create product listings from URLs
How LinkedIn Unlocked A Genius SEO Strategy With AI
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-linkedin-unlocked-a-genius-seo-strategy/511227/
OpenAI strikes deals with more major news publishers, posing a threat to Google’s dominance
Sam Altman Says AI Will Handle “95%” of Marketing Work Done by Agencies and Creatives
Artificial General Intelligence “will mean that 95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today will easily, nearly instantly and at almost no cost be handled by the AI.”
https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/blog/sam-altman-ai-agi-marketing
OpenAI’s GPT Shows Racial Bias Against Job Candidates
HT @benedictevans Unsurprisingly, if you use ChatGPT and other LLMs to summarise and screen CVs for hiring, their analysis will reflect the patterns and biases that are in the training data, so they will tend to down-rank (for example) black or female candidates. Amazon found some similar issues with an experimental AI system back in 2018: Amazon had been more likely to hire men in the past, so the system inferred that men were better candidates (and inferred gender from subtle differences in wording).
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-openai-gpt-hiring-racial-discrimination/
How to to stop WordPress and Tumblr selling your content to AI firms
https://grahamcluley.com/act-now-to-stop-wordpress-and-tumblr-selling-your-content-to-ai-firms/
Strategy & Artificial Intelligence
HT @neilperkin Interesting thought piece about heuristics by @RogerLMartin
https://rogermartin.medium.com/strategy-artificial-intelligence-6f719015b8fc
Nearly one in two French people’s data was stolen in a massive cybersecurity breach at two health insurers.
Publishing & Media
Publishers File Appeal Brief in Internet Archive Copyright Suit
Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Wiley, & Penguin Random House asked the Second Circuit court of appeals to uphold Judge John G. Koeltl’s March 2023 unequivocal decision finding the Internet Archive’s scanning and lending of library books to be copyright infringement. #teamPRH
Amazon must face narrowed lawsuit over eBook prices, US judge says
ICYMI HT @inkbitspixels A federal judge heavily trimmed an antitrust lawsuit that accused Amazon and others of causing consumers to overpay for eBooks. U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan accepted a recommendation from a U.S. magistrate last year that the case be narrowed to include, for now, only two plaintiffs who purchased eBooks directly from Amazon. The judge completely dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims against Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing Group, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, finding that the plaintiffs had not shown a conspiracy between Amazon and the book publishers.
London Book Fair Attracts Hollywood Producers and Execs as Adaptation Craze Continues: ‘IP Supercharges the Conversation’
Book to screen adaptations aren’t a novel concept, of course (pun intended). But despite industry contraction – or even because of it – commissioners and producers are increasingly reliant on pre-existing content, including podcasts, articles and even TikToks, to sell a project.
https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/london-book-fair-adaptations-film-tv-1235940440/
Titles to Be Restored After Bookwire, Amazon Strike New Deal
In a March 13 statement, Bookwire officials said that, while they were unable to share terms of the new agreement, relisting of the e-book titles on Amazon, following their delisting earlier this week during tense negotiations, is expected shortly.
2024 National Book Awards Submission Open, Judges Announced
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/newsbrief/index.html?record=4561
Deadspin Sells to European Media Company, Leaving Staff Behind
The new owner, Lineup Publishing, will not be bringing on any of the sports website’s existing staff members. Deadspin, which started as a blog in 2005 and was part of the Gawker Media portfolio of websites, was sold to G/O Media in 2019 along with a number of other former Gawker brands. Last year, G/O Media shut down Jezebel, a pioneering feminist website, and then sold it to Paste Magazine. It also sold Lifehacker, an online how-to guide.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/business/media/deadspin-sells-layoffs.html
Public Libraries Saw 92 Percent Increase in Number of Titles Targeted for Censorship Over the Previous Year
The American Library Association Reports Record Number of Unique Book Titles Challenged In 2023.
Resources & Opportunities
WMG 50th Anniversary Silent Auction
60 min. consultation w a book publicist? Private bird tour in Central Park for up to 8 ppl? Signed Alan Cumming print? Bid TODAY on these fab experiences and lots more at @WMG_NYC 50th Anniversary Silent Auction! Proceeds fund scholarships for women from diverse backgrounds. Items still being added – please help us spread the word!
https://wmg.betterworld.org/auctions/wmg-50
Limited Seats Avail for WMG’s 50th Anniversary Gala!
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-5571627
WMG Annual Business Meeting
WMG Members: Please come to the Annual Business Meeting on 4/3 from 12-12:30PM ET via Zoom, free. Vote in the new board, welcome new members, review highlights of the past year.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-5645270
Zibby Owens and Estelle Erasmus Talk Publishing
Join publishing powerhouse Zibby Owens and author Estelle Erasmus for a fun and informative conversation about all things book publishing. 4/16 12-1pm ET via Zoom. Free for WMG members; $15 for non-members.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-5643789
AnitaB.org Advancing Inclusion scholarship program
Access to career & academic workshops – Virtually attend annual Grace Hopper Celebration, world’s largest gathering of women & non-binary technologists, apply by Mar 25.
https://ghc.anitab.org/attend/scholarships/
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