AI Implementation in Publishing: Powering Progress & Facilitating Rapid Access to Scientific Knowledge

Balancing AI Innovation and Ethical Compliance

Our innovation framework aims at streamlining the ideation, implementation and release of AI processes, services and products that support our goal of enhancing and expediting the production, validation and publication of academic research. As a counterbalance, our governance framework adds a safety net that guarantees that any AI innovation we release will not violate people’s privacy, nor jeopardise intellectual property, nor endanger people’s rights nor violate any of Springer Nature’s AI Principles while following, aligning and abiding with all the legislation that regional governments have released for regulating AI systems’ production. In a nutshell, our AI Innovation Framework aims to identify ideas that have the most potential impact, connect colleagues to work on shared goals, and ensure we meet the legal and regulatory requirements of new projects.

Being Part of Progress - Developing Reliable and Fair AI Solutions

My main drive to work at emerging technologies and particularly with AI is actually being part of progress, which is the motto Springer Nature has embraced to encompass our aspirations in helping researchers, clinicians and educators find solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. By thoughtfully and responsibly enabling the ideation and release of sustainable and fair AI products and services, we support the research community to focus on advancing discovery instead of investing time in tasks that can be taken care of by automated systems, whilst still maintaining human oversight of course.

Another important motivation for me is facing the challenges that come with the implementation of AI. As we develop and implement our AI tools and solutions, we work to ensure their quality, reliability and trustworthiness to prevent negative real world impact on people or the environment.

Empowering Innovation in AI: The Interplay of Leadership and Team Collaboration

Springer Nature supports us in driving innovation in the field of AI by empowering colleagues to properly implement the frameworks on which innovation will be driven and accelerated. Additionally, our management provides clear priorities so key roles across the organisation can stay focused and support the streamlined but safe release of AI products and services that enable academic progress. Our teams support us by fostering transparency and collaboration. These approaches facilitate having an overview of where, as a company, we stand regarding both AI as an emerging technology, and AI as a means to attain our strategic goals. This overview, then, enables our company leaders to steer, when market, technology or customer feedback indicate such steering need.

AI in Publishing: Accelerating the Knowledge Transfer From Scientific Research to Society

Back during the early times of the pandemic, thousands of researchers around the world rolled up their sleeves and started working on better understanding the cause of the spread of COVID-19, the effects on the body, the best ways to treat patients and how to mitigate the impacts of the scourge on societies and their essential infrastructure. On the other hand, we had a global population that most of the time was unaware of how scientific processes work. We had billions of people who had grown and developed in a culture of immediacy, where watching a movie they liked was as easy as pushing a couple of buttons. For those people, having to wait months in order to know, for instance, if masks were needed or not, was a major and unexpected setback. Most likely, answers to an urgent societal challenge will never be as immediate as streaming our favourite movie and these answers will change, with new evidence and new research. But the prospect of reducing the lead time between the moment that society needs a scientific answer and the moment that Springer Nature can publish a validated peer-reviewed result in books or journals is what excites me, drives me and motivates me every day to work on AI in the academic publishing industry.