📚Bologna Children's Book Fair: on AI and the future of kids lit
What creators, unions, and execs are saying about AI, and where we go from here
AI is no longer a stiff writing tool we can easily dismiss. It’s emerging as a co-author, a competitor, and a silent player in the publishing pipeline. At this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the mood was clear: change is here.
You don’t have to love AI, or accept it, but you do need to pay attention*. Because as fast as AI is moving today, it’s going to accelerate, transforming the industry and craft as we know it. Unconvinced? Here’s the latest from Sudowrite.
*unless you’re a hobbyist, in which case, protect your peace as you wish
This post draws together conversations I had (and overheard) in the aisles and over tea: from creators, unions, executives, plus signals from news, research, and my own work in AI and children’s media.
This is a long read, for researchers, artists, authors and publishers that need the ✨ detail ✨.
If that’s you, grab a tea and let’s dive in.
And if that’s not you, I won’t hold it against you if you yeet this into chatGPT and ask for a summary.
Let’s go.
🎨 Creators: "AI is the Enemy"
The creator response to AI is not monolithic, however, the general sentiment from creators at Bologna was hostility toward AI, positioning both the technology and the "techbros" behind it as adversaries.
Key ConcernsHarm to dignity through devaluation of creative work, reduction of art into ‘datapoints’ and erasure of the creator.
Authors were concerned about LLM’s recontextualising and plagerising work. As a real example;[output] I am nothing if not a democracy of ghosts. -> [original work] He did not believe in an autocratic God. He did believe, dimly, in a democracy of ghosts.
The ‘techbro’s’ were mentioned a lot (i.e. Sam Altman). Creators felt disrespected by the people behind the technology and how they talk about creativity/creative work.
Economic gains imbalance where companies make large profits from stolen work
More recently the viral Ghibli moment for chatGPT added one million users in an hour, chilling for anyone who has heard Mizaki’s take on AI as an “insult to life itself”. Apparently this prompted Sam Altman to admit we need new revenue-sharing models- don’t hold your breath.
This concern echoes beyond the halls of Bologna. The Author's Guild survey with 2,400 members found "nearly universal opposition among authors to their works being used to train AI systems without permission."
Gravity Falls director Alex Hirsch called out Sam Altman: “Wow, congrats! Using Ghibli’s work to train your model and Ghibli’s name to promote it really helped you generate huge revenue!
Authors feel used and left behind, ‘private AI labs are pulling up the ladder behind them, constructing private highways on public land — when their own innovations are built on the back of open research.’
AI-generated ‘slop’ competes for consumers and publishers’ attention
One publisher discussed having to close their submissions due to amount of AI submitted content- blocking access for legitimate authors/artists.
From Robin Sloan- If their primary application is to produce writing and other media that crowds out human composition, human production: no, it’s not okay. For me, this is intuitively, almost viscerally, obvious…Here is a technology founded in the commons, working to undermine it.
Homogenisation of culture and flattening of craft.
A fear that the collective use of AI will result in “mechanised convergence”. It would be a sad end to browse library bookshelves where every book looks and sounds the same.
Missing from the discussionBroader ethics around AI development.
Many authors only recently learned that models were trained on copyrighted works (via the Atlantic) and ethical concerns around the environment were starting to bubble up, but there’s more to lift the lid on here. For example;
How LLM’s are trained: Teaching AI systems to learn the parameters of suicide, murder, rape, or child sexual abuse is traumatizing.Most of this work is outsourced… contract workers in Kenya, India, and the Philippines have been reviewing hundreds of items a day ranging from the mundane to the horrific, often with little to no access to counselling or other forms of necessary mental health protections.
Concerns around role expansion for creators:
Authors rarely get to just write anymore. Will AI mean authors/illustrators take on more work like translation, editing, marketing and more without an increase in compensation?
How AI supports writers with disabilities
Hear more from S.J. Pajonas who talks about their experience of brain fog post-Covid before discovering AI tools that supported the writing process: It was incredibly depressing and demoralizing to think I had written like 30 books, and now all of a sudden, I couldn't write anymore because of this brain fog.
🎤 Union: “Rebalance Power”
The unions present in workshops and panels at Bologna emphasized how creator voices are being excluded from AI development decisions. This discussion almost unanimously focused on IP and Copyright breaches, economic imbalance and how to regain power from the tech industry.
Key ConcernsTheft and breaches to IP law
As a note: these discussions mostly focused on published, and professional authors versus self-published authors (who were amongst the first to have work taken without permission, for example via the BookCorpus dataset). My hope is that unions look more holistically at craft, beyond traditionally published writers- and similarly that traditionally published writers can rally with creatives no matter their publishing pedigree. [Soc of authors]
Economic gains off the back of creators work
See creators concerns above
Not enough community-led acts of resistance
Mention was given to Glaze and Nightshade, with an invitation to continue pushing in this direction.
Missing from discussionQuestion what we’re defending:
Some resistance to AI is due to nostalgic idealism, but for most creators we’re not in an ideal world and never were. Creators already struggle to make a living. 54% earn between $0-$1,999 from their creative practice annually. This context is important when it comes to identifying solutions and evaluating solutions like licensing content to AI companies.
Colonisation and treatment of minoritized creators
There was little to no discussion over the treatment of indigenous knowledge as data, and the expression of knowledge that has been shaped by indigenous knowledge.
Research also highlights these concerns: Specifically as a Black writer, Black scholar, Black cultural worker and artist, if these models are being trained to give an output and the way that the ingesting happens is taking from a lot of different places, I think it supports this idea that ... we can sort of move towards a universal—either multiracial or deracialized—art. And then that, of course, is going to support people in positions of power, specifically white people. (P19)
💰 Publishing Executive: “Pragmatism and Opportunity”
Other executives emphasised that resistance is a risk and that authors should embrace AI to "access a new economy.".
Key ConcernsAI as a tool for mundane tasks
A common phrase was to frame AI as a supportive tool rather than a replacement, highlighting peripheral tasks where AI might assist: proofreading, translation (though with acknowledged limitations), audio narration and marketing support.
Opt-in models with economic benefits
Harper Collins has negotiated rights deals and we also know that Oxford University Press has an agreement with Edtech startup Atypical AI to support their ‘study buddy’ feature. Unclear on the financials here.
Missing from discussionChanging expectations around speed to produce:
What new pressures will be on authors who co-write with AI and what is the publishers POV on creator wellbeing?
How AI is shaping publishers decision making:
Publishers have access to a lot of data. I have no doubt they’re already using AI and social listening tools to identify emerging trends early and either create books within these gaps or commission authors to quickly co-create works. The behind-the-scenes use of AI wasn’t covered in discussions, but does impact creators and how they navigate the industry.
✨ Moving from reaction to re-imagination, together
As an emerging author* who started their career after the golden era of publishing, I think we need to move beyond adaptation and drive radical experimentation. I’d love to see less debate about whether AI belongs in creative industries and more concrete discussion about governance, compensation, and meaningful creative expression.
The question isn't whether AI will impact storytelling, but how we shape that impact to preserve what's valuable about human creativity and community. Here are three action shifts to explore.
*I’m also a principal AI design researcher at a tech company that builds AI creative tools and PhD student studying child-centric AI at the University of Sydney.
1. Call to armsRally and rise: The authors of this paper share that "writers [should] form political communities which can take the helm in determining how their work is used." Creators can work to hold companies accountable by partnering with journalists, engaging in grassroots activism, testifying to policymakers (i.e. Glaze), and demanding AI protections in collective bargaining agreements (e.g. the SAG-AFTRA strike).
Check your tools: Where possible, choose a public and open-sourced AI model for personal use (list included here) or examine tools like Sudowrite and their new Muse model. If you’re using tools like chatGPT or have recently upgraded, double check all your settings for training permissions.
2. Call to imagineDefine your own conditions for participation: The future is not decided! The public should help make Public AI products better, safer, and fairer. They can join user research studies for Public AI products, participate in democratic AI efforts to define shared norms and values, and donate to Public AI nonprofits if they have the ability
Learn and share: It is understandably difficult for creatives to imagine a world where they do participate in the advancement of this technology- most of this development happens behind closed doors. As such, creators struggled with fundamental questions about the technology, reflected in recent research: "The overall goal of language models was unclear to them, and it was therefore difficult to assess what it meant to contribute their writing." There are lots of technologists who are also writers. Those with a grasp on this world could help educate creatives on how AI technology is developed, moulded and the range of possible use cases.
Gather and dream: Initiate or participate in conferences that brings creators together to discuss the future of AI in a way that feels authentic to the community, for example the Slow AI festival “Imagine a cosy space to deconstruct mainstream AI stories, dream up new ones, and figure out how we make them real.”
3. Call to experimentRead experimental works: Like Aaron A Reeds book Subcuteanean, which generates a unique version for every reader. The text and plot subtly changing every time. There are a number of experimental works out there, for example from the Google Creative labs (way back when I was a part of the lab) like books on the blockchain and AI co-authoring tools.
Tinker and test tools: There are a number of community-driven tools being created, like sensitivity checkers to support sensitivity readers. Full disclosure- I haven’t tried these, but I do encourage tinkering with an experimental (and critical) mindset.
Play with new mediums: As an author, you can test AI tools alongside your writing. A year and a half ago I made a silly chatbot of a robot goat to accompany a junior fiction book I wrote*. What else could you create? If you’re based in VIC AUS, then check out the State Library of Victoria’s prototyping and innovation lab
*Sardine, the robot goat, was adorably illustrated by the talented Aurélie Lise-Anne Van Overloop. I didn’t advertise the project, barely anyone read it, but I found it meaningful and learned a lot.
Additional resources:
Educational resources & guides
Co-writing with AI: A guide for curious authors (I wrote this 2 years ago but first section still stands)
AI for authors: ethical & practical guidelines (alliance of independent authors)
Creative technologists & projects
Project: Book and bot (from me!)
Innovation labs
Community
Thought pieces
The creative penn podcast- ‘fair use, copyright and licensing. AI and the author business’ & the AI-assisted artisan
Creative writing AI tools/founders
Charlene Putney and write with Laika [since shut down but Charlene talks a lot about their work]
Sudowrite
ai dungeon (less for writing but supporting storyplay)
Newsletters
Research
Paper: Creative writers attitudes on writing as training data for large language models
https://www.aitrainingstatement.org/?
Open AI response to Office of Science and Technology Policy [esp. ‘freedom to learn’]