Should Audible’s plan to scroll snippets of AI-generated text alongside audiobooks be called what it is – reading?
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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On Wednesday in Judge Valerie Caproni’s lower Manhatttan courtroom of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, attorneys for Audible, the Amazon subsidiary and audiobook provider and seven plaintiff publishers squared off for the first time.
The occasion was a hearing on the publishers’ motion for a preliminary injunction, which would bar Audible from including the publishers’ works in the launch of Captions, Audible’s program to scroll AI-generated text as an audiobook plays in the Audible app.
“Over the course of a 90-minute hearing, Judge Caproni appeared thoroughly unmoved by Audible’s defense of its Captions program, and highly skeptical that Audible’s plan to scroll snippets of AI generated text alongside audiobooks in its app should be called anything other than what it is: reading,” Andrew Albanese, Publisher Weekly senior writer, tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.
Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.
