In the latest installment of “Please Stop Buying Books From Amazon,” it seems that authors are finding almost exact AI duplicates of their books being sold on the platform. As The Bookseller reports, British comedian Rhys James announced that ahead of the release of his memoirYou’ll Like It When You Get There: A Life Lived Reluctantly on Aug. 14, he’s already found a plethora of AI versions circulating on Amazon.
In an Instagram Reel posted by James, he ranks different versions of the books he’s seen based on how likely he’d be to accidentally buy them. The first book cover he shows that’s featured on the platform has a picture of a completely different person on it, posing as him, even though his name is on the cover.
He’s not the first author to experience this, either. The Bookseller article cites the same situation happening to other authors: Julia Bradbury and Leo Varadkar are two highlighted in the article, but the reality is that this has been going on for quite some time.
Back in January, CBC reported how Catherine Tsalikis, a Canadian author, wrote a biography on Canadian politician Chrystia Freeland, and she found that there was another version of her exact book right below it on the same page. It had a slightly reworked title, an obviously skewed AI image on the cover and “a refracted image of my words,” from reading the preview, she told the publication. That article also mentions writer Jessica Waite, who had the same experience in 2024.
It’s incredibly troubling stuff, seeing such a valuable medium of original and inspiring art be infringed upon by computers and coding. Authors are well aware of the risks, but Amazon book sales have long been a concern for authors and booksellers. Combine that with the recently presented issues that come from using AI to write a book — copyright infringement, plagiarism, factual errors, the blatant unethicalness of it, the reputational downfall that would follow — and there’s a hell of a lot to be worried about.
NPR reported on instances like these happening back in March to books written by journalist Kara Swisher and writer Marie Arana. Mary Rasenberger, the CEO of the Authors Guild, told NPR that the publishers (scammers, really) who upload these titles benefit from sophisticated AI tools that quickly generate low-quality versions, and by the time that Amazon even finds them, they’ve already pocketed the sales profit and have likely already moved on to the next one.
As terrible as that reality is, it also feels kind of lazy. Couldn’t Amazon still try and do something? Sure, in theory, but they wouldn’t: The Content Guidelines page on Kindle, which is owned by Amazon, says that “AI-generated content” is required to be disclosed when publishing a book, but “AI-assisted content” is not. Kindle defines AI-assisted content as human-made content that is then used by “AI-based tools to edit, refine, error-check, or otherwise improve that content.” Using AI to “brainstorm” is also considered AI-assisted.
Outside of this, there aren’t any guidelines to how far someone can use these tools on their books, which leaves a lot of grey area that’s incredibly concerning and damaging to reputable authors and their publishing houses. With such vague guidelines, how much work could realistically pass as a “brainstorm” — that’s not even being done by a brain, mind you — or “content improvement”?
Bookshop Takes Aim at Another Pillar of Amazon’s Book Empire
E-books are now available from the online shop whose main goal is to financially support independent bookstoresThe mechanisms of creating these all feel quite sloppy, and it shows. If you think you might be looking at a page with an AI-generated book, you’re probably right. The author name, preview synopsis, cover image and title will look like something that should be right, but just off enough that you might think otherwise — or they might just be enough to get you to buy it. They’ll also be listed at a pretty cheap price, as an attempt to lure you in with a less expensive copy.
Authors have been fighting the good fight against AI for years now. In July 2023, 8,000 authors signed a letter sent to OpenAI and Meta asking them to stop using their work to train AI without their permission or offering compensation. In June, over 70 writers published a letter on Literary Hub addressed to the “big five” of publishing houses — Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan — and “all other publishers of America” with their direct concerns and asks in regard to the use of AI in publishing. This included not replacing their staff with AI and not developing books that used AI in any aspect of the publication process. An accompanying petition gained over 1,000 signatures within 24 hours.
There have been numerous lawsuits filed by authors toward AI companies — including ones they didn’t end up winning, either. The federal judge in Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, where a group of writers sued Anthropic for using copyrighted books to train its AI system Clause, ruled that using copyrighted books to train Claude was fair use, so long as the books were acquired legally. Just last week, The Author’s Guild published a statement regarding their support for the AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Senators Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal. If passed, it would prohibit AI companies from using copyrighted books without the author’s permission.
“AI developers cannot be allowed to build their businesses on the backs of unpaid and unlicensed creators,” the statement says. “Congress must act to restore the rights of working Americans — authors, journalists, musicians, visual artists, and everyday users whose data and voices are being co-opted without permission.”
It’s surely an ongoing battle — one that writers everywhere are working hard to keep fighting. It’s crucial that they do. If we lose our access to creativity and originality due to AI, we’re going to lose an essential part of humanity, which is already slipping away. You can contribute to the good fight by not purchasing these AI books on Amazon — or just stay away from it entirely, for that matter.
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