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Scammers are using AI to mimic actual human authors. Recently, British journalist and former BBC tech reporter Rory Cellan-Jones told The Guardian that he found a biography about his life when he went to Amazon to check his author bio. Surprisingly, the book was not written by Cellan-Jones.
The book was published under the name “Steven Walryn,” and it turned out to be a complete fantasy work generated by AI. The story of the ‘ripoff’ version diverged ridiculously from the actual book, “Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC,” focusing on the love affair between his single mother and his absentee father.
Worst of all, Amazon sent an email to the ‘real Rory Cellan-Jones,’ recommending the same phony memoir instead of his own work. The author told The Guardian:
“Then Amazon sent me an email saying: ‘You might like this.’ Their algorithm had decided this was a bloody book I would want rather than recommending my book that I’ve slaved long and hard over … They’re effectively allowing book spam and recommending it to the very person who is most annoyed by it.”
Amazon has removed the fake biography and other titles from “Steven Walryn,” but many such bogus books still manage to get through the filters.
In August, Jane Friedman – a columnist with Publishers Weekly – discovered many ersatz titles under her name. Friedman suspected that the books had been written by or with the help of AI tools.
Amazon seems to be facing challenges with the influx of AI-generated products in its store. Bookspammers can easily release dozens of titles in a single day using Amazon’s self-publishing platform – the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) system.
In both cases discussed above, Amazon told The Guardian that it is committed to remove fraudulent titles. A few weeks ago, Amazon announced that publishers of new KDP publications would have to declare if their work includes AI-generated content. The firm has also limited authors to self-publishing three books a day.
“But these small fixes seem more designed to benefit Amazon’s processes than readers and human authors.” – Nicola Solomon, the chief executive of the Society of Authors (SoA)
The SoA wants Amazon to clearly label products as AI-generated and allow readers to filter out AI titles. Other authors, including Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, and Viet Thanh Nguyen, are also concerned about their work being used to train AI any compensation, credit, or even their consent.
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.