I have not read many books published in the last year. As AI and large language models improve, I am becoming wary that we may be soon, if not already, reading stuff written by AI. The books I have read this year have been fine so far, seemed human. But I am suspecting that one of the reputable podcasts I listen to has a segment narrated by AI. I am so worried about books.
So my question is: have you come across a recent book that you thought to yourself, gosh – was it written by a robot?
by Bunny-in-the-sun
14 Comments
Fourth Wing
Has anyone figured out is that one book by B.M. “3terna1 G0ds D1e T00 S00n” was indeed written by AI? I had a blast reading, but the few times I have tried posting about it, my post gets deleted saying I am a bot pushing an AI written book…. (I wrote it that way so that it doesn’t get auto-deleted)
I recently thought QNTM was AI, but found out he’s not.
Do you think that there are a lot of published books that are actually AI?
I haven’t come across anything I can say for sure was AI. There are some poorly written books for sure, but really how can we know for sure it’s poorly written because it’s AI?
EDIT: So there are actually a lot of books that were written by AI! If you Google around, you can find lots of examples of AI authored books or material if you want to see what they’re like.
No, but for the first half of this year or so, I was always getting ads on my Kindle for obvious AI books for kids and young adults on my Kindle when it was on the lock screen. I was thinking of buying one just to see what it was like, but I couldn’t justify spending money on that. One other interesting thing I noted was when I tried to look up the book titles and authors’ names for myself on Amazon’s website on desktop, nothing came up. It seems you could only buy them directly through the Kindle.
Before AI was a thing, I would sometimes buy unknown self-published books with just 2-3 reviews. Moving forward, I can’t imagine I’ll buy any books that are not “vetted” well-enough by review sites.
Yeah, I read a children’s book called “The Dove and The Ant, and Other Fables” tonight and it absolutely reeks of AI. I got it in the library so it would be disappointing but it was so badly written I’m not convinced it was by a human.
There are tons of AI books on Amazon, I’m remembering there was specifically a wall pilates book that featured an impossible pose on the cover with hilarious reviews, and some other books by the same “author”.
Of Mice And Men is definitely written by AI.
I’m guessing a lot of the recent books out were written at least 3 years ago, if not more, so before AI was widespread. However, I have seen quite a few reddit posts that seem obviously AI written.
I haven’t come across anything entirely suspicious, but let’s not discount the idea that people have always, in some way shape or form, have taken shortcuts. Since the idea of publication people have used ghost writers to make their jobs a little easier. This is not to say that the use of AI to generate entire novels is acceptable, however I can see how and why some authors would use these free ghost writers to help speed along the process. I just think it’s important for an author to be transparent about what’s AI generated and what’s not. The same way I wish I would have known some of the authors I know and love were using ghost writers to fill in the gaps. Creation is a collaborative process, and I think we are privileged to live in a time where we can introduce the combination of art and created intelligence.
This one book that was supposedly a collection of fables written by this “Aesop” person. I wasn’t convinced.
I don’t read a lot of books from Amazon Direct so I haven’t run into many myself. But my grandmother keeps falling for AI scam books all the time. Usually they’re nonfiction how-to books and she ends up calling me to fix the problems that these bad/incorrect instructions cause.
No, but your post has unlocked a new fear in me just now. Then again I guess AI books would always feel very generic such that we’d be able to sniff them out without much trouble.
AI’s not even close to good enough for that yet – it sucks at anything even vaguely long form. I suppose it’s possible authors are using it to improve their prose, but that’d be about it. Unless you’re reading self-published stuff that people can spam on Kindle Unlimited and so on, it’s not something to be concerned about at this point.
The Lord of the Rings – Rohan Drift