This Week’s Strange Phenomenon on Amazon: Artificial Intelligence-Generated Books
This week, a strange phenomenon was discovered on the Amazon website: a list of bestsellers in the genre of youth novels was populated by books generated by artificial intelligence. These books lacked any coherent storyline and were clearly created solely to generate clicks and earnings on the Kindle Unlimited platform.
The situation first came to light when independent author Catylin Lynch tweeted about it. According to Lynch, out of the 100 books listed as the best in the genre of modern youth novels, only 19 were authentic, while the rest were AI-generated books meant for clickbait purposes.
Concerns Over the Implications for Kindle Unlimited Platform
Lynch attached screenshots of some of these AI-generated books, which featured absurd titles and inappropriate illogical covers. She raised concerns about the potential damage such books could cause to the Kindle Unlimited platform, which compensates authors based on the number of pages read by Kindle users.
While spam is commonly associated with unwanted email messages, AI-generated books could be considered a form of spam on the Kindle Unlimited platform. Similar to how spam inundates recipients with unwanted messages, these AI-generated books flood the platform with low-quality content, impeding genuine authors from gaining visibility and compensation for their work.
Impact on Publishers and Users
The prevalence of AI-generated books poses several challenges for both publishers and readers. For publishers, the sheer volume of AI-generated books can make it difficult to identify authentic, quality literature among the noise. This ultimately affects their ability to curate a diverse and enriching collection of books for readers.
As for readers, the presence of AI-generated books diminishes the overall quality of the reading experience. Instead of meaningful and engaging stories, they are presented with nonsensical narratives that feel contrived and insincere.
Moreover, the rise of AI-generated books could also lead to an increase in fraudulent activities. Attackers might exploit these books to carry out phishing scams, attempting to obtain users’ credit card information and access passwords to online payment systems. This