I found this a fascinating read. How Amazon has become filled with garbage ebooks. https://www.vox.com/culture/24128560/amazon-trash-ebooks-mikkelsen-twins-ai-publishing-academy-scam
People will always abuse weak systems. I hope this will lead to quality stamps and human made stamps. To get a certificate there would need to be a global authority that reads new books and gives out stamps if they are made by humans. Might be costly, though...
Great article. The kicker, as they mention toward the end, isn't the dingdongs who perpetuate the scam but the technology and the marketplace working in cahoots to facilitate the scam. And it isn't illegal. Just unethical. Big big big difference.
It'll take time to develop it properly to make sure that it's written by a human. As time progresses, the better AI content will be making the job more difficult.
It'll be more like an ongoing arms race, or like the constant tug-of-war between digital surveillance and things like VPNs that protect people from them. There'll be a massive advancement on one side, and then after struggling for a while the other side will figure out how to disable it or get around it.
Of course if AI fiction gets good enough, nobody will care, except for human authors who think wistfully back to a time when they were employable. But it's highly doubtful computers will ever be able to convincingly simulate feelings and human experience. There's no way they can 'understand' it (the word doesn't even have releveance).
Difficult to police perhaps. I can't understand why those duped into buying rubbish don't report it to Amazon and demand a refund. They would sort it out pronto if they were hit where it hurts.
A useful tool for spotting AI written text is... AI. It's like the best way to fight a Terminator is with another Terminator. Or maybe John Connor.
I found the article interesting. I don't think Amazon or any other self-publishing platform ever plans to police the industry or waste their time making calls of what is and isn't AI assisted. I mean they are asking writers, and I have a feeling that's just as much effort as they are going to put into it. It seems like the self-publishing arena is getting hit the hardest with AI garbage. Amazon and the likes are never going to vet and evaluate self published works. And I don't see them ever not welcoming AI work any less in the future. This might have an effect on the way people view self publishing in the future. I just really can't see the self publishing industry creating any sort of standard for screening or quality of work. That sort of starts to step away from the whole idea of self publishing, doesn't it?
Amazon do apply standards at the moment. If you look on the KDP forum there are lots of posts complaining their book has been rejected or in some cases their account has been blocked. That's why I found the article rather surprising. Amazon will pull books if they receive complaints from customers. If I had been ripped off by the scam tactics described in the article I would certainly want a refund.
Well, the whole point of self publishing is there are no gatekeepers. And I don't see Amazon ever switching over yo become a publisher. I mean they are to go to place to self publish for both left writers and the AI fake writers. You can't really say there is any set of standards anyone has to meet before self publish. No one is reading the work before it goes up for sale. Doing so would be just a ridiculously and timely undertaking. Not to mention it would change their whole business model, as far as I know it to be. I don't know the ins and outs of self publishing and I'm not a self-published writer. But I do think it's interesting and important to keep an eye on the whole AI thing. And there are currently a countless number of AI generated books up for sale right now o Amazon. Much of trade publishing has taken a firm stand against AI. I think there are several reasons for this being 1, age way LLMs were trained 2.0 you can't copyright it another thing is there's no saying that hundreds or thousands of people haven't been given the same story an/or won't be given it after so it instantly has little value without even taking quality into account 3. I think the way we right stories is import. The words we use and don't use are just as important if not more than anything happening in the story, I love a ploy, but I espies to be dazzled by the prose on top of this. It a hard thing to pull off, but this s where I think good writers have the edge over AI and always will. I just wonder have self published authors are going to compete. Just look at the article and how confusing the AI generated "writers" wanted to make it for people looking for a certain book. Since AI (LLMs) come out it's been in every contact I signed, agreeing in no way I used AI, specifically LLMs. These have mostly been for print literary publications. I will be looking to publish a novel in the future and I imagine there's something similar in those contacts. I like to watch what's going in all areas of publishing. And now what's going on in terms of publishing that that we have AI. But I don't really worry about it as a writer. I think I would feel differently if I was a self published author. These shit AI books are just flooding the market. If readers care, and especially if it gets too hard and confusing to find the right books... Well, I don't know how this is going to turn out. But it's interesting and I think all writers should care about this, understand it, and keep an eye on the industry, AI being part of that. I thought the article was a worth the read. And this discussion is interesting.
