It is necessary to activate an observatory on the impact of artificial intelligence on the media industry and an experimental laboratory dedicated to exploring the new technological and creative frontiers of generative AI, focused on expanding human skills and creating new professions and creations.
Since 2017, the Moebius Foundation in Lugano has dedicated an observatory and award dedicated to the new forms of mutant publishing, starting with the following definition: “Mutant publishing is the emerging condition of the publishing industry, which must develop new forms in a regenerative startup process to respond to digital challenges.”
The publishing industry is being profoundly impacted by the advent of digital platforms, which are challenging business models and the very role of publishers. The Italian (and international) press had two sources of revenue:
- The sale of copies in bookstores, newsstands, or by subscription
- the advertising spaces
Then the change of scenery: the rapid and intensive transfer of readers from paper to the web caused the increase in the catchment area but also:
- the parallel reduction in hard copies
- The decrease in advertising revenues for publishers
The new players in domestic publishing, in all advanced countries, are now de facto global digital players, the Big Tech platforms, sharing increasing shares of readership and budgets, both advertising and pay-per-view.
The mutation has already resulted in mass extinctions: some substantial print sectors, such as encyclopedias and large works, Yellow Pages, have already disappeared, while print newspapers and periodicals are in severe crisis.
Artificial Intelligence has already been operational in specialized areas of publishing for some time, for example with the automatic processing of stock market and financial news sheets. Publishing opportunities related to artificial intelligence are numerous and to be explored. These include global publications with machine translations. The publishing business in many nations is severely limited by the small size of the domestic market. The possibility of creating simultaneous multilingual global publications is emerging. An opportunity to expand across borders. And a risk: having to face other foreign competitors in Italian.
In 2026, the Lugano Moebius Prize is dedicated to new forms of mutant publishing enabled by Artificial Intelligence.
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