But when I looked at Amazon again this week, I saw a proliferation of spammy clone biographies of hers. As first reported by tech blog 404 Media. Each had a slightly different title, author, and a fake image of her on the cover. “There were dozens,” Swisher said. “I thought, ‘What’s going on here? Why don’t they stop it?'”
Swisher recently discovered that selling a new book on Amazon means competing for reader attention with imitations that show signs of being largely or entirely generated by artificial intelligence tools. Only the most recent author. It’s been nearly 10 months since The Washington Post reported one of the first known instances of these scammers, and the authors say the problem appears to be getting worse.
“It’s becoming easier and easier to generate books using AI, and the number of them is increasing,” said Mary Larsenberger, executive director of the Authors Guild, an industry group for authors. She added, “I think we’re going to be dealing with an explosion of AI-generated books before we get any closer to solving the problem.”
The list of affected authors is long and the types of plagiarism are wide-ranging. Some people falsely claim that they were written by real authors, such as the five books that publishing industry analyst Jane Friedman found under her name on Amazon last August. Some have the same title as actual books, like the one technical writer Chris Cowell reported for the Washington Post last May.
Recently, some people, such as jazz writer Ted Gioia, have changed their first names even though they share the same surname as a real-life writer. Some books are touted as “companion” books or “workbooks” to bona fide bestsellers, as “Today” host Savannah Guthrie learned when she published her latest book. There are also works of fiction, like the apparently AI-generated novel that topped Amazon’s e-book bestseller list for Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Romance last summer.
Although it is difficult to conclusively prove that a particular book was generated by AI, counterfeits tend to be self-published using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service. These often bear the name of an unknown author, sport cover art that resembles the output of an AI imaging tool, and appear on Amazon shortly before the release of the real book you’re trying to capitalize on. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.)
Amazon said it takes this issue seriously, has already taken steps to address it, and is working on additional measures. The company does not prohibit users from selling books generated by AI tools on its platform. However, it prohibits content that infringes on intellectual property, or books whose descriptions are misleading or whose content is “typically disappointing” to customers.
“We aim to provide the best shopping, reading and publishing experience possible and are constantly evaluating developments that impact that experience, including the rapid evolution and expansion of our generative AI tools.” Amazon spokeswoman Lindsey Hamilton said.
Amazon is trying to stem this trend by limiting self-publishing to three books a day. And since last year, E-book authors are required to disclose AI-generated works to Amazon, but the company is not required to disclose them to its customers.
In the company’s latest steps to limit spam books, Hamilton said it recently began restricting the publication of “summaries” and “workbooks” that claim to be companions to real books written by humans. .
When reports of AI counterfeits surface, which is becoming increasingly common, Amazon often removes the offending book from its site, sometimes along with other books. Hamilton said the company also has a “powerful set of methods to help proactively detect content that violates our guidelines, whether or not it is AI-generated,” but that those methods are He did not say what it was.
Some authors have wondered why such powerful technology companies seem to have so much trouble addressing this problem.
On Wednesday, when searching for “Kara Swisher book” on Amazon, the first result was Swisher’s actual memoir, “Burn Book.” However, her next 16 results were all books about Swisher published by other authors within the past three months. Most of them shared some of the common characteristics of AI imitators. It was self-published, often short in length, and without any sign of original reporting or insight in the description or the sample page his Amazon provided.
The second book on the list was written by Cheryl D. Stackhouse and Brotherhood Press and was titled “The Kara Swisher Book.” The sample text alternates between describing Swisher in the third person and writing in her voice, and includes gibberish quotes such as “If you don’t have confidence, it’s impossible to be confident.” It was included.
Swisher said he emailed Amazon CEO Andy Jassy when he saw the proliferation of counterfeit products. She has covered his company many times over the years. — To complain. By Thursday, many had been removed, including one by Stackhouse. Swisher said he appreciates the response, but noted that most authors don’t have that kind of access to executives.
“What I’m trying to say is, ‘Okay, you’ve done it for me and you’ve brought attention to my book, so why don’t you do it for everyone else?’ was.” (Swisher’s wife, Amanda Katz, is an opinion writer for the Washington Post.)
It’s unclear how deeply Amazon is investigating the users behind the book’s removal. Stackhouse’s book about Swisher disappeared Thursday, but a search for Stackhouse’s name on Amazon’s site revealed dozens of other books still for sale. Most purport to be biographies of famous people, and all have been published within the past few months.
Efforts by a Post reporter to locate and contact the author of that name were unsuccessful. Amazon declined to provide information about Stackhouse, citing customer data privacy.
Books that appear to be AI knockoffs often have few customer reviews. This at least shows that you are not fooling a huge number of readers. However, Max Thorne, the author of the Swisher books, is also listed as the author of a book about convicted murderer Gypsy Rose Blanchard, which has 26 reviews. Yes, with an average rating of 2.2 stars.
One reviewer called it “not even a book” and lamented, “I want my $12 back!!” Another said, “This is robbery!” Other reviews are titled “Be careful,” “Waste of money,” “Disappointing,” and “Not good at all.” The book was also available on Amazon as of Thursday. Attempts to locate the online presence of an author named Max Thorne were unsuccessful.
Amazon’s Mr. Hamilton said the company suspends publisher accounts “when there is a warranted pattern of abuse.” He added: “The company’s processes and guidelines will continue to evolve as AI-driven publishing changes to maintain the best possible experience for both customers and readers.”
Friedman, a publishing industry analyst who published a fake book under his own name last year, said he has since continued to receive calls and emails from other authors who have had similar experiences. She said she understands that Amazon probably doesn’t want these books on its site, but wonders why one of the world’s largest technology companies would do more to block these books. I wondered if he wasn’t making an effort.
Razenberger said the Authors Guild has called on Amazon to start disclosing on its site which books are generated by AI, and the company is “responding.” The union said it also supports a bill introduced in Congress last year by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). The bill would require AI companies to mark content generated by their tools to identify it as AI-generated.
Meanwhile, counterfeit books keep coming out. On Thursday, journalist Byron Tau was alerted to an e-book purporting to be his biography on Amazon when his friend searched for Tau’s new book, “Means of Control.”” The copy titled “BYRON TAU BIOGRAPHY” was only 17 pages long, and the sample text contained obvious factual errors. Tau said in an email to Amazon’s press office that the title was immediately removed.
“I hope Amazon finds a way to police this behavior, because it actually devalues the work of the people who spend years researching and writing the books. ” Tau said. “This is just a sign that these systems that we all depend on are extremely vulnerable to gamification.”
Drew Harwell contributed to this report.
