Artificial intelligence-produced e-books made their way to Amazon’s Kindle store on Monday, in the best sellers category, where they remained for two days. After their removal from that category, they were still available for purchase on the website.
The e-books had no meaning, as a “read inside” view made clear, Vice reported.
They were probably AI-generated, as a comparison with other AI-generated content shows.
The fake books were in the best sellers section in the young adult contemporary romance category, according to a Twitter post, cited by Vice, and according to screenshots of Amazon’s page.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7b774/ai-generated-books-of-nonsense-are-all-over-amazons-bestseller-lists
It is unclear how they made it to the best sellers category, as they were void of normal content.
The Epoch Times was able to read some titles and content of them and verify their existence on Amazon’s page.
For example, some titles were, “Jessica’s Attention,” “Apricot Bar Code Architecture,” and “Department of Vinh Du Stands in Front of His Parents’ Tombstone.”
“Apricot Bar Code Architecture” began: “Black lace pajamas, very short skirt, the most important thing, now this lace pajamas are all wet,” Vice reported.
The book is no longer available on the Amazon website as of Thursday afternoon.
The Epoch Times could find until Thursday one of the fake books available for purchase on Amazon, even though it was no longer showing in the best sellers section. The fake books were removed from the best sellers section on Wednesday, according to Vice.
Their covers were looking generic, with random photographs or generic shapes. Most of their fake authors’ names seemed similar to Vietnamese names.
A Twitter post had a screenshot of the best sellers section on the Amazon Kindle store at that time. Out of the 16 books in the screenshot, only two appear to be real.
Amazon self publishing is going through a thing right now…. pic.twitter.com/Cp1qr3HO0K
— Wesley Chu (@wes_chu) June 27, 2023
An Amazon spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment by press time.
This was just the latest AI incident in the literary space.
AI-generated books were already produced and sold on Amazon from the beginning of the year.
Brett Schickler had never imagined he could become a published author, but he published an AI-generated e-book at the beginning of the year.
By using the AI software ChatGPT, which can generate blocks of text from simple prompts, and asking it to “write a story about a dad teaching his son about financial literacy,” Schickler had in his hands a kind of 30-page illustrated book after just a few hours.
He published it on Amazon Kindle in January through Amazon’s self-publishing unit, titled, “The Wise Little Squirrel: A Tale of Saving and Investing.” Its price was from $2.99 to $9.99, and he netted $100 from the sales.
In the edition, Sammy the Squirrel, crudely rendered also using AI, learns from his forest friends about saving money after happening upon a gold coin. He crafts an acorn-shaped piggy bank, invests in an acorn-trading business, and hopes to one day buy an acorn-grinding stone.
Sammy becomes the wealthiest squirrel in the forest, the envy of his friends, and “the forest started prospering,” according to the book.
ChatGPT is not appearing as the author of this book, which brings up the issue of authenticity.
Amazon did not respond immediately on how the company can be sure that future content on their site will be authentic and not AI-generated. There are more than 500 books presently on the Amazon Kindle store that have ChatGPT as the author, co-author, or editor of the book.
There is even a new sub-genre on Amazon: Books about using ChatGPT, written entirely by ChatGPT.
The number of AI-generated books could be higher, as an author could fail to disclose that he or she used ChatGPT for generating the book.
Now ChatGPT appears ready to upend the staid book industry as would-be novelists and self-help gurus looking to make a quick buck are turning to the software to help create bot-made e-books and publish them through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing arm. Illustrated children’s books are a favorite for such first-time authors.
On YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit, hundreds of tutorials have sprung up, demonstrating how to make a book in just a few hours. Subjects include get-rich-quick schemes, dieting advice, software coding tips, and recipes.
Reuters contributed to this report.
