Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Chicago Sun-Times Points Fingers for AI Article Debacle
This went about as I expected. In a statement released last night, The Chicago Sun-Times blamed its publication of an AI-generated (and thus hallucination-filled) summer reading list on its syndication partner, who then blamed it on a freelancer. The internet was quick to pile on about how bad and dumb AI is (it can be) and to decry the use of AI to replace writers (which it certainly is). But the story behind the story is the nesting dolls of content creation, syndication, and lack of editorial oversight that is happening all around you everyday. That the mistakes were so egregious belies the underlying truth is that for most of what you read and watch online, no one is watching. No one is checking. Because there is so much free content, the price that can be paid for most content cannot support the kinds of checks and balances that would prevent something like this. And this only makes leaning, or fully standing on the shoulders of, modern technology that makes making stuff faster and cheaper.
Five Supreme Court Justices Recuse Themselves from Publishing Case
The case itself seems like the quixotic flailing of a real crank, but the secondary event is pretty fascinating. Five supreme court justices recused themselves from hearing the plagiarism case because they are all five signed with the defendant, Penguin Random House. This means that with only four jurors remaining, the coure didn’t have a quorum, and so the finding of the lower court held, essentially saying that this is indeed the quixotic flailing of a real crank. I had not considered this higher-order consequence of PRH’s dominance: you will not get a case against them tried in the Supreme Court. Not ideal.
McNally Jackson Launches Bookstore Blitz Show with Simon and Schuster
5 minutes. $100. 57,000 books. I am not sure if this short form video series/team-up between McNally Jackson and Simon & Schuster is a good idea, but it is an idea! The real twist is that $100 bucks will get you about three hardcovers. I can do that in about 15 seconds. I think a variation in which you have 5 minutes to find books in the store to give to someone (say the celebrity author there to promote their book) would be pretty great. Maybe have two people compete and if the celebrity author picks your stack, you get the prize. That one is for you for free, desperate publicity departments.
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