The Conversation with Nadine Matheson
Sep 7, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 20 segments
Watch as a full video episode on YouTube On this week’s episode, we are talking about MrBeast & James Patterson’s apparent book flop, and wondering if publishers will…
Nadine MathesonHostTarekHostAnd the good news is most of them have nothing to do with AI, but of course...
A rare treat.
It is AIPL.
It is Adventures in Publishing Land or AI in Publishing Land.
And we have comments from our last discussion, last episode.
Lots of comments under our YouTube video, which is great.
Always good to get some interaction there.
So I thought we could quickly just discuss some of those at the start before we get into the stories we're going to cover.
And I was going to pick up, first of all, you know, there's the AI stuff, which we were going to discuss, but there is also...
There was some discussion, I think, started by an email that we got in relation to audiobook narrators and AI narrating audiobooks and stuff like that.
And there was a bit of a back and forth actually between two commenters about whether this is... good or whether you know um at miss scarlet tanager makes the point that you know just do it yourself if you can't afford an audiobook narrator um which you know i think is something that we we discussed but obviously um other people are saying well it's not it's not that simple for some people some people may not be able to do themselves like physically may not be able to do themselves and things like that
there's gonna be a language barrier or
yeah exactly exactly you might
good
exactly yeah 100 there's all of these things so i mean it is it's a it's one of these things i do think this is where the nuances of these arguments you know come in obviously we are all against ai narrators really you know i would much rather have a professional actor you know i i if i knew an audiobook is ai narrated i'm not going to pick that i suppose the danger as we've discussed before is that maybe the tech will get good enough that i won't know that it's an ai narrator that's narrating it But there is that sort of gray area.
And I've seen the argument being made this week as well in relation to the meta pervert glasses, as some have called them.
But you know, there is a legitimate use for those glasses in terms of accessibility for some people and things like that, that it can be helpful.
um and so that's the trouble is that some of this tech could be helpful and it could genuinely change people's lives but it's not being used that way really it's it's being used by these companies to make money and to force it down our throats and all of this sort of stuff so i agree with that yeah
I think a lot of AI stuff is easy to come down on one side or the other on.
A lot of it is just kind of either good or bad or whether it's energy use or whether it's a copyright infringement, there's clear lines.
But there are parts of AI where it is more nuanced and social media hates nuance.
It likes to have a black and white view and stuff.
But the reality is that some parts of it, there is nuance and there are benefits that exists for some people and there's downsides that exist for some people and i don't know how we navigate those little thorny bits where you know it isn't a clear black and white distinction and and so i don't know i i genuinely don't know it probably be some kind of regulation i'd imagine would be the only really way of doing it but i mean how you enforce that it's another issue i think you've used to go to quote you've got a quote spider-man here don't you
And the good news is most of them have nothing to do with AI, but of course...
A rare treat.
It is AIPL.
It is Adventures in Publishing Land or AI in Publishing Land.
And we have comments from our last discussion, last episode.
Lots of comments under our YouTube video, which is great.
Always good to get some interaction there.
So I thought we could quickly just discuss some of those at the start before we get into the stories we're going to cover.
And I was going to pick up, first of all, you know, there's the AI stuff, which we were going to discuss, but there is also...
There was some discussion, I think, started by an email that we got in relation to audiobook narrators and AI narrating audiobooks and stuff like that.
And there was a bit of a back and forth actually between two commenters about whether this is... good or whether you know um at miss scarlet tanager makes the point that you know just do it yourself if you can't afford an audiobook narrator um which you know i think is something that we we discussed but obviously um other people are saying well it's not it's not that simple for some people some people may not be able to do themselves like physically may not be able to do themselves and things like that
there's gonna be a language barrier or
yeah exactly exactly you might
good
exactly yeah 100 there's all of these things so i mean it is it's a it's one of these things i do think this is where the nuances of these arguments you know come in obviously we are all against ai narrators really you know i would much rather have a professional actor you know i i if i knew an audiobook is ai narrated i'm not going to pick that i suppose the danger as we've discussed before is that maybe the tech will get good enough that i won't know that it's an ai narrator that's narrating it But there is that sort of gray area.
And I've seen the argument being made this week as well in relation to the meta pervert glasses, as some have called them.
But you know, there is a legitimate use for those glasses in terms of accessibility for some people and things like that, that it can be helpful.
um and so that's the trouble is that some of this tech could be helpful and it could genuinely change people's lives but it's not being used that way really it's it's being used by these companies to make money and to force it down our throats and all of this sort of stuff so i agree with that yeah
I think a lot of AI stuff is easy to come down on one side or the other on.
A lot of it is just kind of either good or bad or whether it's energy use or whether it's a copyright infringement, there's clear lines.
But there are parts of AI where it is more nuanced and social media hates nuance.
It likes to have a black and white view and stuff.
But the reality is that some parts of it, there is nuance and there are benefits that exists for some people and there's downsides that exist for some people and i don't know how we navigate those little thorny bits where you know it isn't a clear black and white distinction and and so i don't know i i genuinely don't know it probably be some kind of regulation i'd imagine would be the only really way of doing it but i mean how you enforce that it's another issue i think you've used to go to quote you've got a quote spider-man here don't you
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