21st Ghana International Book Fair: Publishers advised to adapt to AI disruptions

The public launch of the 21st Ghana International Book Fair and the National Story Writing Competition was held on Thursday, April 4th, in Accra.

The event, which brought together stakeholders in the book, publishing, and literature industries as well as selected students from various schools, was under the theme “Books and Culture in the Era of Artificial Intelligence.”.

In his welcome address, Chairman of the Ghana International Book Fair (GIBF), Asare Konadu Yamoah, highlighted how artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising various aspects of our lives, increasing the need for professionals in the book and publishing industries to adapt to newer technologies.

“Artificial intelligence is transforming everything that affects our lives. It is fueling people’s anxiety and expectations about the future and increasing our drive to explore more with technology. Our culture is being challenged to exhibit a variety of adaptable options, and books are not exempt.”

“As publishing professionals, looking far beyond what persists currently is not enough for our business practice and survival,” Mr. Yamoah noted.

Mr. Yamoah, who doubles as the Ghana Publishers Association, revealed that the Planning Committee of the GIBF is creating a platform in August to discuss the future of publishing in Ghana and the continent while addressing the protection of the intellectual property of publishers.

“Publishers and other content creators must have answers towards protecting intellectual property rights in the new age of artificial intelligence. Strengthening of data protection measures, improving on how AI users could ensure that content accessed is accurate and reliable,” he said.

Director of Training at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), Emily Fiagbedzi, who was the keynote speaker for the launch, explained how the book and publishing industry can take advantage of AI, despite its seeming disruption to its fortunes.

Defining AI as the software and machines that perform tasks that were once only done by humans, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making, she observed that AI has been around for some time, albeit smarter now.

“Although AI became a buzz word in the past year with the introduction of chat bots like ChatGPT, the reality is that artificial intelligence solutions have been around for years. But technology has become smarter and more easily integrated into our already tech-powered lives.”

“Think about virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri on the iPhone or Google Assistant on Android phones. How about recommendation systems like what to watch next on Netflix or YouTube? And we have all seen those personalised advertisements for a product we looked up somewhere online, now being shown to us on the sidebar of several websites. Or those customer support chats that we sometimes love because they help solve our problem quickly or that we are quite frustrated with because the responses don’t match our questions,” she clarified.

Madam Fiagbedzi described Ghana’s book industry as one driven by rich heritage, creativity, and human connection; hence, it cannot be completely replaced by AI through disruption.

She noted that although the industry appears to be at the mercy of AI, it can take advantage of the positive offerings of AI to scale it up in terms of access to books and literature from around the world, more affordable reading, easier distribution, and global recognition of authors.

“AI will undoubtedly bring and have brought some disruption to your industry. Yet not all disruption is bad. And if we understand the impact of AI on the industry, we can leverage its positive contributions.”

She also outlined practical ways writers, publishers, editors, illustrators, and readers can use different AI tools to produce quality content and enhance creativity.

Notwithstanding other challenges posed by AI, including potential job losses and “algorithmic bias,” she encouraged the book industry to thrive by adapting to the challenges as they emerge.