ChatGPT was introduced shortly before the 2022 Frankfurt Book Fair. Now, three years later, entrepreneurs are working hard to address several of the challenges posed by the new technology. Particularly vexing is the new AI era is the provenance of a book. .
Books by People is a UK-based startup offering publishers a way to certify their books as human-authored, responding to growing concerns about AI-generated content flooding online marketplaces.
The company will certify publishers as producers of human-authored work through a combination of human evaluation, text analysis, and editorial process review. The certification provides publishers with a visible stamp for book covers, a certification ID, and a listing in a public directory.
"There are just so many AI-generated books, and our aim is to provide an easy way for readers to be able to tell which ones are human-authored, so they won't have to do much filtering," said Esme Dennys, co-founder of Books by People.
Four independent UK publishers have signed on as founding partners: Galley Beggar Press, Snowbooks, Bluemoose Books, and Scorpius Books. The first certified book, Telenovela by Gonzalo C. Garcia, from Galley Beggar Press, will carry the Books by People stamp when it publishes in November.
The certification process operates at the publisher level, rather than title-by-title. Books by People evaluates sample titles, reviews editorial practices, and then certifies the publisher. "We rejected the idea of using automated AI-detection software, as it is too vulnerable to being deceived and making mistakes," Dennys said.
After certification, the company will continue to provide ongoing support, including AI policy guidance for editors and access to legal advisors specializing in AI and creative industries.
Dennys, whose family has been in the antiquarian book business for nearly a half century, said the organization aims to create an "organic literature" market similar to organic food certification. "As with food and processed food, some people won't care," Dennys said. "But a lot of people do care and we're catering to those people."
Amlet is a different kind of content registry, one that aims to help publishers and authors secure and monetize their content as artificial intelligence systems increasingly use creative works for training data.
The Milan-based company offers what it calls "the world's first public content registry designed specifically for the AI era." The platform addresses a pressing industry challenge: ensuring that AI companies use creative content transparently and legally while enabling rights holders to get paid.
The service is built on the International Standard Content Code (ISCC), an ISO-certified "digital fingerprint" for creative works standardized in May 2024. Each registered work receives a unique ISCC code generated directly from its content rather than metadata, allowing AI systems and digital platforms to automatically identify and respect usage rights.
"Artificial intelligence relies on high-quality, human-created content — yet most of this content has never been properly identified or licensed for AI use," said Giacomo D'Angelo, founder and CEO of Amlet. "We built Amlet to do better."
The platform enables publishers and authors to register and timestamp works to prove authorship, track content across digital platforms and AI datasets, control licensing for text and data mining and AI training in compliance with EU AI Act and copyright regulations, and monetize content through machine-readable licensing.
Amlet's initial partners include StreetLib, the digital publishing platform, and Bowker, the official U.S. ISBN agency. The ISCC framework was developed by Titusz Pan, Amlet's founder and CTO and the code's inventor.
The platform positions itself in what D'Angelo calls a tool to help rights holders "participate in the AI economy — securely, fairly, and on their own terms."
