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0xtero @beehaw.org

11mo ago

None of these people exist, but you can buy their books on Amazon anyway

conspirator0.substack.com None of these people exist, but you can buy their books on Amazon anyway

Once you find one author with an AI-generated face and potential AI-generated books, Amazon will helpfully direct you to more

None of these people exist, but you can buy their books on Amazon anyway

Our AI-generated future is going to be fantastic.

Archive link, so you don't have to visit Substack: https://archive.is/hJIWk

44 comments

Here's a basically fully automated service where you can generate a shitty book for $200. You can even have it printed as a paperback for more useless waste or have it AI narrated as a shitty audiobook.
https://www.bookbud.ai/
I hate everything about it.
- $200? I can use Llama on my computer for free.
  
  How much time and power per page?
  Then, it seems like Meta trained Llama with copyright protected books without permission, so the model might stop being free at any moment.
  
  For free? The larger models require a lot of hardware.

Amazon has been having problems with books written by LLMs for almost a year, and it doesn't appear to do anything about it. For example:
AI Detection Startups Say Amazon Could Flag AI Books. It Doesn't (Sep 2023)
A new nightmare for writers shows how AI deepfakes could upend the book industry—and Amazon isn't helping (August 2023)
These are just two examples, you'll find many more. But people keep buying there and support this business.
[Edit typo.]
- From your second link...
  The story comes from author Jane Friedman, a veteran writer and academic who woke up to find AI-generated books listed under her name on Amazon.
  I don't think AI is the problem here. It's that I can write a book, claim George R. R. Martin is the author and Amazon won't fact check me.
  
  I mean, both are problems.
- "Problems"... how much is Amazon's cut?
- Ah! Typical Amazon
- Don't forget the children!

Amazon also sell faked AI products if you search for (bizarrely)...
“goes against OpenAI use policy”
Try that string and see what happens.
- Those aren't faked products. Those are shitty products that have a shitty attempt at giving them descriptions.
  
  The reporter explains why they don't seem to be real. Why do you think otherwise?

I do almost all of my reading on a kindle - one of the ones with ads on the lock screen, and for months now all of the ads have been for this type of no-effort, low-quality, AI-generated garbage. Amazon clearly doesn't give a fuck as long as they make money.
- There’s ads on the Lock Screen now? Ugh.
  
  Now? They've had the option almost since they first started selling them. It's like $10 to remove them permanently. Honestly didn't realize anyone would get the one with ads on purpose but hey, I didn't think people would use Twitter when I first heard about it either.
  
  They have sold two 'tiers' of kindles for awhile, the one with ads on the lock screen is usually discounted.
  It's not my favorite thing but iirc the lock screen is supposed to be the only place with ads.
- Well, if they didn't care about being flooded with machine generated trash, they wouldn't have set the limit to books you can self publish down to a mere three per day.
- I don't know how it is now, but the older ones you could root and disable the ads.
  
  You don't even need root, or at least you didn't when I had mine. You just need to turn on developer mode, and then the Fire Toolkit app can do the rest.

Ew, substack…
- Yeah sorry - edited OP and added archive link, so no one needs to hit substack servers.
  
  Pardon my ignorance but I'm OOTL- why is substack a bad thing? ( I didn't know of its existence before this post)
  
  Nice, thanks

Ah yes, the automated plagiarism disguising machines in action.

I keep waiting for Amazon to start generating AI-driven online profiles spouting Ai-driven selling points for AI-generated media.
It's the AI version of "Flood the zone with shit" except the entire internet is The Zone.
- Dead Internet Theory

Two words: Camen Mola.

44 comments