At the International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities on 21-22 June, IPA Secretary General, José Borghino, gave a keynote speech entitled ‘Publishing as Essential, Critical Infrastructure, or Who’s Afraid of AI?’
In the speech, which was delivered at the University of the Aegean’s campus on Rhodes, Greece, Borghino spoke about how the COVID pandemic had underlined the importance of publishing as an essential infrastructure for the scientific community (supplying crucial research that allowed vaccines to be developed at an unprecedented speed), for teachers, students and education systems (delivering educational content at reduced rates so that education could continue despite school closures), and for general readers (giving children and adults respite from the rigours of lockdown). Borghino argued that the key infrastructure for publishing were the IPA’s twin policy drivers of copyright and freedom to publish which were facing serious, concerted attacks from the Big Tech platforms on the one hand and the rise of populist and authoritarian regimes on the other.
