Many scholars, economists and politicians have predicted peak oil production before and were wrong in the estimate of the timing of the turning point. At the occasion of the Frankfurt book fair #fbm26, the sector’s coming to grips with the use of AI is all over the place. AI is the elephant in the room which threatens jobs and complete business models, but also creates new opportunities. On the Global Stage on 2026-10-7 the panel on innovation and experimentation in publishing discussed the issues based on first experiences. When I asked Chat-GPT for an opinion on, whether one of the presenters gave a realistic assessment of the potential of AI in publishing, it came up with a rather sobering statement (see below). “Yes — the overall approach is realistic, but the slide makes it sound easier and more universal than it actually is.” A great opportunity for AI consulting to the sector subject to rapid change (again). Maybe the AI knows from my track record of prompts that I am a social scientist and favor critical thinking. Pleasing me, it ends by a suggestion that indirectly AI is less universal than is currently the dominant opinion. We might see a reckoning of AI that it (hopes) for its own sake, to be less universal than what the hype suggests. Peak AI could guarantee sufficient margins to survive comfortably, just like other not-so-social or not-so-sustainable sectors and technologies.
