Italy the Guest of Honor as Taipei International Book Exhibition Opens

The Taipei International Book Exhibition has opened with Italy as the guest of honor. This year also sees discussions and activities involving AI.

Transcript

00:00Rows and rows of books inside Taipei's World Trade Center as the city's annual

00:05International Book Fair, one of the world's largest, begins. This year's fair

00:09showcases books from across the world, one of its core goals, cultural exchange.

00:30Running for six days, this book fair has in the past attracted over 500,000

00:48visitors, often including Taiwan's president. This year, no different, as

00:52President Lai Ching-de took part in the fair's opening ceremony, echoing the

00:56importance of the publishing industry and the book fair in spreading Taiwanese

01:00culture. Every year, the fair chooses one country as its guest of honor. This year

01:17is Italy, in part, officials said, because Italian culture is influential across

01:21the world, including in Taiwan. Their book fair pavilion was designed to feel like

01:26a town square, Italian books filling the walls. This year, the fair will also

01:31incorporate discussions about AI and its impact, and activities involving the

01:35technology. In this area, visitors can get a book written for them by AI. All

01:44they have to do is put in a few preferences on an iPad, and they'll get a

01:47short story passage like this. The organizers had Taiwanese authors think

01:51of new book ideas, and write around 1,600 characters introducing the books they

01:55came up with, which they then fed into ChatGBT, along with commands like

01:59include dialogue. ChatGBT generates a different passage for each visitor, based

02:04on which book title and which author they choose. As AI has become more widely

02:08used, many authors have raised concerns, warning it will threaten their

02:12livelihoods, and worrying their work could be used to train AI models who

02:15will then imitate their writing, with some even demanding compensation. But

02:20here, at the Taipei Book Fair, many were more optimistic, including the curator of

02:24this area, who doesn't believe AI will ever stop humans from writing.

02:46Another author, who writes children's picture books, said he feels writers can

02:50use AI as a tool, but need to find ways to use it constructively.

02:54With others, excited to see what new ideas the technology can produce.

03:24Whatever the opinions of the public, it's clear AI will be used more and more, as

03:28it becomes better trained, and as new models emerge, which will continue to

03:32impact writers, and the publishing industry at large.

03:35Justin Wu, and Caden Sciranta, for Taiwan Plus.