As with the printing press and the dotcom boom, initial frenzy and speculation obscures the lasting legacy of new technologies“Innovation,” wrote the economist William Janeway in his seminal book Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy, “begins with discovery and culminates in speculation.” That just about sums up 2023. The discovery was AI (as represented by ChatGPT), and the speculative bubble is what we have now, in which huge public corporations launch products that are known to “hallucinate” (yes, that’s now a technical term relating to large language models), and spend money like it’s going out of fashion on the kit needed to make even bigger ones. As I write, I see a report that next year Microsoft plans to buy 150,000 Nvidia chips – at $30,000 (£24,000) a pop. It’s a kind of madness. But when looked at it through the Janeway lens, ’twas ever thus.“The innovations that have repeatedly transformed the architecture of the market economy,” he writes, “from canals to the internet, have required massive investments to construct networks whose value in use could not be imagined at the outset of deployment.” Or, to put it more crudely, what we retrospectively regard as examples of technological progress have mostly come about through outbreaks of irrational exuberance that involved colossal waste, bankrupted investors and caused social turmoil. Bubbles, in other words. In recent times, think of the dotcom boom of the late 1990s. Or in earlier times, of the US railway... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-12-30 16:00:37 UTC ]
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As you probably know, Literary Hub is produced by a small staff; most of us are writers, and/or moonlight as editors on other projects. This year, four of our number—that would be 36% percent of full time Literary Hub staffers, not too shabby—published books, which is certainly worthy of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-11 17:52:31 UTC ]
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The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-12-11 16:27:41 UTC ]
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Good book criticism is booming right now. I have at least some degree of confidence in saying this because for the past six years, I’ve been keeping track of my favorite reviews to prepare for these annual roundups, and my 2023 longlist was by far the biggest and most difficult to narrow down.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-11 12:47:20 UTC ]
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Jenna Bush Hager selects Lauren Grodstein's 'We Must Not Think of Ourselves,' Reese Witherspoon spotlights Ella Berman's 'Before We Were Innocent,' and more of this month's picks by the nation's biggest book clubs. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Monty Python, blasphemers: When the culture wars came for a little film called Life of Brian. | Lit Hub Film & TV “Moderation did not win the public’s favor.” How hot beverages became all the rage in 18th-century Britain. | Lit Hub History Debbie Urbanski urges novelists to think about AI... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-08 11:30:19 UTC ]
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Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado sell the first in a new series to Thomas & Mercer, Europa takes on International Booker finalist Robert Seethaler, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Dav Pilkey's fifth Cat Kid Comic Club volume, 'Influencers,' is the #1 book in the country. Plus Nicole "the Holistic Psychologist" LePera returns with 'How to Be the Love You Seek,' and Lynn Painter, who writes rom-coms for teens and adults, has her best first week yet with 'Betting on You.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Among the week's headlines: Montana strikes the MLIS requirement for library directors; Florida's revealing argument about the freedom to read in public schools; and a new report from ALA explores the "digital public library ecosystem." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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PW looks back at the library stories that captivated the publishing world this year, and what they portend for 2024. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The Authors Guild and other artists’ groups say that it's unfair to train AI algorithms on their work without permission. Tech companies generally argue that it counts as “fair use.” Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2023-12-07 12:00:00 UTC ]
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A CBC News investigation has found at least 2,500 copyrighted books written by more than 1,200 Canadian and Québécois authors were shared online as part of a massive — and now defunct — dataset used to train artificial intelligence. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2023-12-07 09:00:49 UTC ]
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In comments submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office this week, the Association of American Publishers slammed assertions by the tech industry that fair use permits AI developers to use copyrighted works to train their systems without permission or compensation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-06 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Will Barker, manager, strategic customer success, BlueConic The media and publishing industry is constantly evolving. With this, it’s often difficult to keep up with the latest trends, especially with fast-evolving technologies emerging all the time and ripple effects remaining from the global... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2023-12-05 15:08:37 UTC ]
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It’s been a roller coaster of a year. Thankfully, we’ve had novels to whisk us to days gone by, even if those eras had their own highs and lows. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-05 10:01:03 UTC ]
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75 Notable Translations 2023, by Michelle Johnson Lit Lists [email protected] Mon, 12/04/2023 - 15:13 In an interview up at the Booker Prizes, 2023 International Booker Prize–winning translator Angela Rodel describes the work of author and... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-12-04 21:13:28 UTC ]
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The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-12-04 16:55:30 UTC ]
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From witch stories to near-future noir, here are the year’s 10 best speculative books. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-04 10:00:38 UTC ]
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All photos courtesy of e-Kitabu. In 1993, I was a teenager, volunteering to work with street children in Kibera, the largest “slum” on the continent of Africa. I held babies, played hokey-pokey and Swahili versions of patty cake with grade-school kids, fielded requests for money by street... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-04 09:48:58 UTC ]
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Narrator Dion Graham joins AudioFile’s Michele Cobb to discuss his narration of King: A Life, written by Jonathan Eig, and one of AudioFile’s 2023 Best Biography & Memoir Audiobooks. Listen to hear Graham discussing the research and preparations that went into this narration, and the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-04 09:08:51 UTC ]
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You can read countless ebooks, listen to audiobooks, and browse comics with one of these WIRED-tested digital reading subscriptions. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2023-12-02 14:00:00 UTC ]
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