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I saw a cute bear and a large-font title and shrugged back at my wife.
But I’d missed something.
“You realize,” my son who was nearby said, “That’s an AI-generated book.”
I grabbed the Kindle from my wife and looked more closely.
On the cover was a heartwarming illustration of a boy hugging a bear.
Nothing seemed amiss until I looked at the large-pop in title: “The Brave Bear Mountain Cimb”.
That’s right “Cimb” not “Climb”.
Below the not-quite-right cover was the correct title: The Brave Bear Mountain Climb.
I also noticed that there was no author listed on the cover.
A day later I saw another children’s book on the same Kindle’s sleep screen.
It had another cute illustration and a lot more words.
Roughly half of them were nonsense.
It’s never quite right.
If you don’t own a Kindle reader, you may not be familiar with these screensaver ads.
The write stuff
I was curious about where that Brave Bear book came from.
Turns out there is a realThe Brave Bear Mountain Climbby Bernadina Dilwalie.
Dilwalie, however, is an online ghost.
They have published no other books, and there’s not a singleGoogleSearch result for the name.
Perhaps that’s why the AI authors chose her, or Bernadina is an AI author, too.
It’s not news that the rise of generative AI has led toa flood of AI-generated booksandbest-seller knockoffs.
The proliferation of AI-generated tomes has transformed Amazon into a minefield of misdirection.
Books with too-perfect or oddly-formed cover illustrations could be AI-generated.
The cover depicts a pair of tortoises confronting a tiny white table.
The overlayed text promises “A Tale story”.
Not “A Tail story” or “A Tall story”.
“Tale” makes zero sense, and is essentially a repetition of the word “story.”
The proliferation of AI-generated tomes has transformed Amazon into a minefield of misdirection.
Maryam Amas appears to write in all genres.
My favorite title may be,SAVE WATER :Do you know what am I?.
Most of these AI books are published through Amazon.
it could cut down significantly on all this garbage.
That’s obviously a recipe for disaster.
Still, the last bit about the book and status of those ads is notable.
All books in the store must adhere to our content guidelines, regardless of how the content was created.
When we become aware of an issue, we investigate and act quickly to protect customers.
We suspend publisher accounts when warranted to prevent repeated abuse.
The content in question is no longer available for sale and no new ads will be served.
Nope, just another book that is more in alignment with her tastes.
On my own Kindle Paperwhite, I’ve never seen those weird AI ads.
Here’s hoping I never do.
