George Walkley
@georgewalkley.com
Chairman @midascampaigns.bsky.social, board @bdspublishing.bsky.social, @brisunipress.bsky.social, policy @independentpublishersguild.com, advisor @xigxaguk.bsky.social, MBA, 48% centrist dad. Opinions on strategy, AI, books, games, etc my own.
100 years ago all of my grandparents were children. Go back to the end of the war, and you can pick from army/intelligence, civil servant in the Board of Trade, railway worker, cinema usher.
Revan@revan.eurosky.social · last wk.Enough “what would you do on the commune questions” If you got sent back 100 years and were given your grandparent’s job, what are you doing?
@zeroecho.uk This may be of interest.
Engelsberg Ideas@engelsbergideas.bsky.social · 2w agoBritish commanders are still trained to prize the flash of intuitive brilliance. In an age of AI and autonomous systems, that instinct may prove actively regressive. The age of the genius general is over | @edstringer.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-a...
Except—the quoted text in the headline is a paraphrase, not a quote from the research, and the 6% seems to relate to a particular, specific usage rather than AI in general. The Creative Access research is useful, but this headline and framing doesn't help. Details: www.linkedin.com/posts/george...
Publishing has 'lowest uptake of AI across creative industries', according to new report | George Walkley
The Bookseller's morning newsletter caught my attention with an eye-catching headline, suggesting that publishing has the 'lowest uptake of AI across creative industries', according to new research fr...
linkedin.com
The Bookseller@thebookseller.com · 2w agoThe publishing industry has reported the lowest uptake of AI usage at only 6%, reflecting ongoing concerns around copyright and authorship, the Creative Access 2026 Thrive report has revealed. 👇
Useful & interesting stuff from George on AI vs publishing in the courts…
George Walkley@georgewalkley.com · 3w ago1) This isn't totally new, some of the same plaintiffs had sought permission to intervene in an action against Google before the California courts early in the year: www.reuters.com/legal/govern.... The jurisdiction for this is SDNY. Reads like a hedge against Cali not progressing as they'd like?
I respect France's commitment to not working on a holiday.
This is @nickharkaway.com’s fault but a short thread with thoughts on the new publisher legal action against Google over AI training 👉
George Walkley@georgewalkley.com · 3w agoOh good grief. You and I met, as I recall, on a panel to discuss legal disputes between publishers and Google seventeen or eighteen years ago. Rust really called this one.
Related to this, I'd love to know what proportion of successful AI experiments/POCs are using an LLM or coding tool to develop a script that runs independently of AI. A lot of the good publishing examples I've seen and built are vibe coded Python scripts or VBA macros.
John V Willshire@willsh.bsky.social · 3w agoThis should be printed on cards and made available to every organisation in the world for the next two years.
It's been a busy week and I almost missed the milestone, but Wednesday marked six years of running my own business. The pandemic seemed to destroy all sense of the passage of time: it seems simultaneously like six minutes and sixty years.
Good for Lisa Nandy and DCMS. Your periodic reminder that most large publishers are still using the platform.
David Barnett@davidmbarnett.bsky.social · last mo.Culture secretary Lisa Nandy quits Twitter. Good on her.
For the second time recently, someone at a conference has referenced the emergence of the web in the 1990s "for those old enough to remember" and it is triggering me.
Great evening at Parliament celebrating British Intellectual Property Day with my @independentpublishersguild.com hat on. Thanks to hosts Sir John Whittingdale, the Alliance for IP, @alcs.co.uk and @plslicensing.bsky.social.
ALCS@alcs.co.uk · last mo.James Frith MP, speaking at Parliament for #BritishIPDay2026: "Whether you're a songwriter or artist, copyright is vital to ensure you are paid for your work. This Government wants to ensure that we continue to encourage and reward investment in human creativity."
James Frith MP, speaking at Parliament for #BritishIPDay2026: "Whether you're a songwriter or artist, copyright is vital to ensure you are paid for your work. This Government wants to ensure that we continue to encourage and reward investment in human creativity."
Today, Mel Brooks is 100. Post a gif of your favourite of his films to celebrate.
Abby Normal Scene from Young Frankenstein
ALT: Abby Normal Scene from Young Frankenstein
static.klipy.com
Kári Tulinius@kattullus.bsky.social · last mo.So, *today* Mel Brooks is 100. Drop a gif of your favorite of his films to celebrate
@hbr.org has a new piece on how AI companies should pay fair rates for content, suggesting that the answer is a Hollywood-style profit share: hbr.org/2026/06/how-.... 🤨 I've written a response comparing this with "Hollywood accounting": www.georgewalkley.com/AI-and-Holly...
How AI Companies Can Pay Fair Rates for the Content They Need
Frontier AI models are trained on the accumulated digital output of humanity, which AI companies acquired essentially for free. This is a problem for both AI companies and content creators. For AI com...
hbr.org
@hbr.org has a new piece on how AI companies should pay fair rates for content, suggesting that the answer is a Hollywood-style profit share: hbr.org/2026/06/how-.... 🤨 I've written a response comparing this with "Hollywood accounting": www.georgewalkley.com/AI-and-Holly...
How AI Companies Can Pay Fair Rates for the Content They Need
Frontier AI models are trained on the accumulated digital output of humanity, which AI companies acquired essentially for free. This is a problem for both AI companies and content creators. For AI com...
hbr.org
Excellent piece by @ciaranm.bsky.social on X remaining a government comms channel. There's also a really important lesson here for media and publishing companies—including many of the largest—that continue to use it. Perceived lock-in is the same, as is the remedy. www.thetimes.com/article/e895...
Walking across London to beat the tube strike, I can’t help thinking that it would have been safer for riders and society if some of the people who decided to get on Lime bikes had instead walked or stayed at home.
Is there a worse feeling than hitting send on a newsletter and then spotting the three horrible errors in it.
On a call and someone just used the phrase “trust recession” and man, that hits.
Writing something for my newsletter about how @semafor.com used AI to develop a wrap-up of its recent conference and was reminded of this: an artefact from the Palaeolithic era of digital publishing, produced by the organisers of Bookcamp (2009). Lots of familiar names and faces…
I am generally a fan of James Marriott's writing, but this section of his column today is extraordinary. What is utterly abnormal is the hold X continues to have over the mainstream media and politics. There is a very simple solution to his problem.
Terminal 3 at ORD at cocktail hour is almost enough to convince one that Malthus had a point.
