Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere lately, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. We’re seeing AI in search, AI-generated photos or videos, and now it’s bleeding into more places like Amazon’s Kindle ebook store.

According to a report by Reuters, the popular tool ChatGPT is taking over Amazon’s Kindle Store, with over 200 books listed as authored or co-authored by the software. To make matters worse, Amazon doesn’t have specific disclosure policies around this, nor does it require authors to mention the use of AI. As a result, the numbers are likely far higher than the 200+ being reported.

One person used AI to create a 30-page children’s book in only a few hours. ChatGPT and other AI tools created the content, illustrations, and more. That book is available on Amazon’s Kindle Store for between $3 and $10 for a physical print copy.

As you can probably imagine, this has all sorts of implications, ethical or not. ChatGPT learns from scanning millions of data points, existing text, and other information to help spit out content. There’s a risk of plagiarism, quality control, and incorrect information. And while accurate information isn’t all that important in fiction children’s books, it’s still a cause for concern.

“This is something we really need to be worried about. These books will flood the market, and a lot of authors are going to be out of work,” said Mary Rasenberger, executive director of writers’ group the Authors Guild.

ChatGPT is disrupting all sorts of industries, and this is only the beginning. Recognizing AI content will get more difficult, especially as it improves. Eventually, we’ll need more transparency. These are interesting times, so just remember that the Kindle book you’re reading might not be from a human.

via Engadget