“We strongly reject the opposition between culture and technological innovation.” It's on this message from Renaud Lefebvregeneral director of the National Publishing Union (SNE), that the 2024 Digital Conference opened. If the concerns raised by the acceleration of AI are real, book professionals can find new opportunities in these technologies. Faced with this revolution in progress, Virginia Clayssenpresident of the SNE digital commission, advocates curiosity – a fault a priori shared by all publishers – while “ fear is the worst position when it comes to technology.”
Many speakers shared their expertise throughout the day. Marion Carré, co-founder of Ask Mona, a company that uses AI to improve access to culture, campaigned for a technology “in the service of sharing knowledge and not impoverishing culture”. Thomas Coxco-founder of Veristage, presented Insight as a platform capable of assisting publishers in the publication and marketing of their books, ensuring data security.
Postapocalyptic imaginations
AI could even revolutionize literary prescription, according to Christian Roy who explained, from Canada and through technology, how the A10s network of digital specialists supports organizations in their use of digital to promote the discoverability and marketing of their offers.
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Nourished by postapocalyptic imaginations, photographers Yves Marchand et Romain Meffreurbex specialists, even collaborated with AI to fantasize an abandoned Paris in The Ruins of Parisrecently published by Albin Michel. The text is signed by the writer Nathan Devers who reminded a packed auditorium that, when photography replaced realistic painting at the end of the 19th centurye century, painters had already had to reinvent their artistic practices.
The challenge of digital education
Finally, while young people are saturated with content generated by AI, schools are today challenged to educate digitally as well as to educate through digital technology, AI being able to act as an educational accelerator serving of the teacher to develop students' critical thinking.
AI can also be ethical if it is deployed while respecting fundamental rights for the book chain. The European Union provided a first regulatory framework with theAI Actentered into force in August 2024, and France has mandated the CSPLA for missions relating to respect for copyright in the era of AI, while the subjects of concern are the uses of works without consent and the he emergence of self-published book platforms which are suspected to be generated by AI.
Arnaud Robert, president of the legal commission of the SNE, insisted on the importance for professionals ofopt out, which makes it possible to oppose in principle the aspiration of their contents by AI, whether their intention is then to prohibit or monetize their use.
A way of reminding us that it is the uses that have always invented the future of technologies. With the vigilance of the authorities and the inter-professional community, users must be able to benefit from virtuous and transparent AI. So it is unnecessary to specify here that this article was not written by artificial intelligence.
The issue of accessibility
A few months before the entry into force in France of the European directive on Accessibility, the Conference took stock of the expectations of Arcom, the regulatory authority in this area, and redefined the outline of the exemptions. From June 28, 2025, publishers will have to produce their new digital releases in a format accessible to people with disabilities, with a deadline until 2030 for their funds. If the description of images remains the main difficulty for illustrated books, AI could help produce alternative texts. Gautier Chomeldigital book & accessibility project manager at EDRLab, presented the Qualebook tool, aimed at establishing a benchmark to improve the quality of digital books, before the Conference ended with a focus on the digital library of its host, Gallica, offering access to several million documents.
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