The full schedule for Artificial Intelligence: Revolution and Opportunity in Trade Publishing, an online conference to be hosted by Publishers Weekly on September 27, has been announced.
The conference will be livestreamed from New York and San Francisco on September 27 from 1:00–5:30 p.m. ET, and sessions will be recorded and available to registrants for later viewing through October 27. Registration information is available here. It will be cohosted by Peter Brantley, director of online strategy for the University of California Davis Library, and PW contributing editor Thad McIlroy.
"AI is a transformative technology impacting the way we work, share and communicate," Brantley said in a statement. "Like the internet, AI resets our view of what’s possible; its impacts are permanent and unbounded. This summit will canvas the ways that AI is influencing how we publish and how we write; our panelists will touch every aspect of our work, and suggest how we can shape the future of publishing."
As was previously announced, Markus Dohle, the former CEO of Penguin Random House, will open the conference, and Ethan Mollick, associate professor at the Wharton School and author of the newsletter One Useful Thing, will give the closing keynote, "One Useful Thing to Know About AI."
The day's six panels and panelists are:
Seeing the Big Picture: AI and the Business of Publishing
- Barbara Kline Pope, executive director, Johns Hopkins University Press
- Michael Bhaskar, author of The Content Machine (Anthem Press, 2013), Curation: The Power of Selection in a World of Excess (Piatkus, 2017) and, with Mustafa Suleyman, The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma (Crown, Sept., 2023)
- Catherine Weldon, artificial intelligence & machine learning associate, Penguin Random House
In the Weeds With Words: AI and Editorial
- Cliff Guren, digital media strategist; currently working on an AI-focused research project for Forbes Books and author of Metaphor, a blog
- Barbara Ruehling, CEO and lead facilitator, Book Sprints
- Stephen S. Power, executive editor, Kevin Anderson & Associates
Where the Rubber Meets the Road: AI and Book Marketing
- Fauzia Burke, digital marketing and PR innovator; author of Online Marketing for Busy Authors (Berrett-Koehler, 2016)
- Keith Riegert, publisher, Ulysses Press
- E.J. Wenstrom, fantasy and science fiction author for adults and teens; author of YA dystopian novel Departures and the award-winning Chronicles of the Third Realm War series (City Owl Press)
Streamlining the Journey: AI and Book Production
- Ken Brooks, president, Treadwell Media Group
- Bill Kasdorf, principal, Kasdorf & Associates; expert on accessibility, XML/HTML/EPUB modeling and workflow
- Diem Bloom, director of publishing operations, Johns Hopkins University Press
An Ongoing Saga: The Legal Landscape for AI, Authors and Publishing
- Scott Sholder, partner, Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard; entertainment and arts lawyer
Creativity and the Machine: AI and Authors
- Sean Michaels, writer and critic, author of the forthcoming novel Do You Remember Being Born? (Astra House, Sept., 2023)
- Gregg Hurwitz, bestselling author of 23 thrillers, including the Orphan X series; co-president, International Thriller Writers (ITW): writer of screenplays, television scripts and comics
