From August 15 to 19, the 2025 Southern China Book Fair is underway at the Canton Fair Complex. On this occasion, José Borghino, Secretary General of the International Publishers Association (IPA), made his inaugural visit to Guangzhou with stops at Yongqingfang, Zhongshuge bookstore, and the Flower City Academy of Literature. He also delivered a speech at the forum "AI-powered future: technology reshaping the ecosystem of global publishing".

Echoing the topic of the forum, Borghino stated, "Publishers have always been ready to adapt and adopt the latest technologies and now deploy AI across marketing, design, translation, proofing, editing, and distribution." He highlighted accessibility breakthroughs empowered by AI, "AI technology is moving super fast, introducing significant improvements in image descriptions, screen reader voices, and assistive technologies that will enable publishers to make fully 'born accessible' books for new titles at a reduced cost." He also cited sustainability gains brought by AI through optimized fonts in saving paper and ink, as well as print-on-demand technologies, reducing air freight shipping, long lead times, wasteful print runs, and on turns.

"But AI's challenges strike at the core of what we all do--creativity." Borghino warned, stressing the need to discern when human creativity is augmented by AI and when replaced. He condemned unauthorized training practices on AI models, "General AI models are only good because they have been trained on the creative works of the past—however, mostly without permission and without any remuneration to the original creators. Publishers have to recognize and champion our own value." Reiterating IPA’s stance, he declared, "Only the works of human creativity should be accorded copyrights."

Borghino also applauded the efforts of the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) in collaboration with other ministries to block access to globally notorious infringing websites, showing NCAC's strong commitment to effectively tackling piracy in China in this context. "IPA warmly welcomes NCAC's continued close cooperation with the international publishing community through regular consultation with the International Publishers Coalition of China." He called for a strong Chinese voice in promoting the strengths of copyright at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.

Spanning 40,000 m2, the main venue of the 2025 Southern China Book Fair features four themed exhibition halls: Read the World, Read the Future, Read Life, and Read Guangdong. After visiting the "Read the World" international pavilion, Borghino expressed his shock, "I only visited the international pavilion and it's huge! And I was told that it's only one of four! The number of exhibitors impressed me." As his first visit to Guangzhou, he pledged to forge a more direct and closer institutional tie between IPA and Guangdong's publishing community.