The publishing industry has warned that books created by artificial intelligence – often imitating autobiographies – are a growing concern, and called on retailers to issue clearer warnings to consumers.
Sky News has spent months tracking apparent AI recreations, particularly sports books, that have been sold on Amazon as Kindle e-books, as well as printed versions.
Some titles were removed after we informed the e-commerce giant.
But we understand there are no immediate plans for Amazon to label content that AI was involved in generating.
“AI created books are an increasing problem for us,” Publishers Association chief executive Dan Conway told Sky News. “It is incredibly easy using these new, amazing tools to create content.
“The problem is that on the consumer side, it’s really, really difficult to tell the difference often between a properly researched book that covers a topic that you want to read about versus something that’s been spun up incredibly quickly using AI technology. And you’ve got some real consumer confusion out there.”
In recent days, we found several books quickly feeding off England’s success at the Women’s Euros, which appeared to be created by AI.
Books on scoring stars Chloe Kelly and Michelle Agyemang shared the same style covers, even featuring the wrong ball – from American football.
Fewer than 50 pages each, they sell in paperback for about £11.
The Agyemang book was published the day after her dramatic equaliser in the Euros semifinal against Italy, while the Kelly book appeared online the day after her winning penalty in the final against Spain.
The named author, who has no digital trail beyond Amazon and other online retailers, has more than 45 books to their name since the start of July, on politicians, scientists, entrepreneurs and musicians, as well as sports stars.
It is frustrating for sports stars telling heartfelt stories in books only to see imitations online, confusing consumers.
‘It’s scary’
At the recent Sports Book Awards, former England football captain Steph Houghton was shocked to be told about a 50-page imitation of her autobiography, Leading From The Back, which runs for more than 300 pages.
“It takes a lot of hard work to make a book,” she said. “It’s poor that, in terms of Amazon allowing it to be on there as well.”
Former Liverpool and Tottenham player Neil Ruddock was in disbelief about a book aping Toxic, his account of addiction, Toxic.
His literary agent, James Wills, said: “We do have a real concern about generative AI, which is what this is, somebody putting it in and using it that way.”
Former Afghanistan football captain Khalida Popal produced My Beautiful Sisters, a harrowing account of sexual abuse in her team and helping players flee the Taliban. She was stunned to be shown a similar account of her life had been produced and placed on sale online.
“It’s scary,” the award winner told Sky News. “This story matters a lot. It’s the voices and the stories of hundreds and thousands of women who suffered and who are victims and survivors of brutality and war, and challenges in Afghanistan.
“Those sisters, those voices and stories, are very important for me. That’s why I really took care of it, telling that story.”
Those AI versions of the Popal, Ruddock and Houghton books are no longer available on Amazon but they were for some time without it being obvious how they could have been created.
What is Amazon doing?
An Amazon spokesperson told Sky News: “We have content guidelines governing which books can be listed for sale, and we have proactive and reactive methods that help us detect content that violates our guidelines, whether AI-generated or not.
“We invest significant time and resources to ensure our guidelines are followed, and remove books that do not adhere to those guidelines.
“We aim to provide the best possible shopping, reading, and publishing experience, and we are constantly evaluating developments that impact that experience, which includes the rapid evolution and expansion of generative AI tools.
“We continue to enhance our protections against non-compliant content, and our process and guidelines will keep evolving as we see changes in publishing.”
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People releasing books via Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) are required to inform Amazon if content is AI-generated, but that information is not passed on to consumers. KDP authors can be asked by Amazon to verify their identities.
Unofficial biographies are a staple of the publishing industry, often written by journalists on celebrities and politicians, but involving their own research and writing. The growing concern is the limited human involvement in putting together books – without it being clear to those browsing online platforms and searching for books to buy.
Those churning out AI books are often rapidly reacting to news, such as the election of Pope Leo in May, when few could have been prepared to write at such length about him.
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The Publishers Association is discussing the framework for AI with the government.
“These large language models that exist now are so powerful that it’s become incredibly easy to create content of all types,” Mr Conway said. “You’ve effectively got the threat of information saturation.
“So a cookbook comes out on a topic and is particularly well-received. You can have, within days, thousands of other titles that are spun up that then compete directly with that product.”
