People Are Using A.I. to "Write" Unauthorized Books From Popular Authors and Sell Them on Amazon
Read the Article: "An author says AI is ‘writing’ unauthorized books being sold under her name on Amazon" by Clare Duffy, CNN (article appears in full, below)
Supplemental Reading: "I Would Rather See My Books Get Pirated Than This (Or: Why Goodreads and Amazon Are Becoming Dumpster Fires)" by Jane Friedman
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New York (CNN) -- An author is raising alarms this week after she found new books being sold on Amazon under her name — only she didn’t write them; they appear to have been generated by artificial intelligence.
Jane Friedman, who has authored multiple books and consulted about working in the writing and publishing industry, told CNN that an eagle-eyed reader looking for more of her work bought one of the fake titles on Amazon. The books had titles similar to the subjects she typically writes about, but the text read as if someone had used a generative AI model to imitate her style.
“When I started looking at these books, looking at the opening pages, looking at the bio, it was just obvious to me that it had been mostly, if not entirely, AI-generated … I have so much content available online for free, because I’ve been blogging forever, so it wouldn’t be hard to get an AI to mimic me,” Friedman said.
With AI tools like ChatGPT now able to rapidly and cheaply pump out huge volumes of convincing text, some writers and authors have raised alarms about losing work to the new technology. Others have said they don’t want their work being used to train AI models, which could then be used to imitate them.
“Generative AI is being used to replace writers — taking their work without permission, incorporating those works into the fabric of those AI models and then offering those AI models to the public, to other companies, to use to replace writers,” Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the nonprofit authors advocacy group the Authors Guild, told CNN. “So you can imagine writers are a little upset about that.”
Last month, US lawmakers met with members of creative industries, including the Authors Guild, to discuss the implications of artificial intelligence. In a Senate subcommittee hearing, Rasenberger called for the creation of legislation to protect writers from AI, including rules that would require AI companies to be transparent about how they train their models. More than 10,000 authors — including James Patterson, Roxane Gay and Margaret Atwood — also signed an open letter calling on AI industry leaders like Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to obtain consent from authors when using their work to train AI models, and to compensate them fairly when they do.
A Growing Problem
Friedman on Monday posted a well-read thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, and a blog post about the issue. Several authors responded saying they’d had similar experiences.
“People keep telling me they bought my newest book — that has my name on it but I didn’t write,” one author said in response.
Amazon removed the fake books being sold under Friedman’s name and said its policies prohibit such imitation.
“We have clear content guidelines governing which books can be listed for sale and promptly investigate any book when a concern is raised,” Amazon spokesperson Ashley Vanicek said in a statement, adding that the company accepts author feedback about potential issues. “We invest heavily to provide a trustworthy shopping experience and protect customers and authors from misuse of our service.”
Amazon also told Friedman that it is “investigating what happened with the handling of your claims to drive improvements to our processes,” according to an email viewed by CNN.
The fake books using Friedman’s name were also added to her profile on the literary social network Goodreads, and removed only after she publicized the issue.
“We have clear guidelines on which books are included on Goodreads and will quickly investigate when a concern is raised, removing books when we need to,” Goodreads spokesperson Suzanne Skyvara said in a statement to CNN.
Friedman said she worries that authors will be stuck playing whack-a-mole to identify AI generated fakes.
“What’s frightening is that this can happen to anyone with a name that has reputation, status, demand that someone sees a way to profit off of,” she said.
The Authors Guild has been working with Amazon since this past winter to address the issue of books written by AI, Rasenberger said.
She said the company has been responsive when the Authors Guild flags fake books on behalf of authors, but it can be a tricky issue to spot given that it’s possible for two legitimate authors to have the same name.
The group is also hoping AI companies will agree to allow authors to opt out of having their work used to train AI models — so it’s harder to create copycats — and to find ways to transparently label artificially generated text. And, she said, companies and publishers should continue investing in creative work made by humans, even if AI appears more convenient.
“Using AI to generate content is so easy, it’s so cheap, that I do worry there’s going to be this kind of downward competition to use AI to replace human creators,” she said. “And you will never get the same quality with AI as human creators.”
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Read the Article: "An author says AI is ‘writing’ unauthorized books being sold under her name on Amazon" by Clare Duffy, CNN
Supplemental Reading: "I Would Rather See My Books Get Pirated Than This (Or: Why Goodreads and Amazon Are Becoming Dumpster Fires)" by Jane Friedman
Our Father ('PG'): A Delightful Little Short, The Directorial Debut of Aisling Bea.
One Mann's Movies Film Review of "Our Father". Aisling Bea's delightful short film about a closeted lesbian girl coming out to her traditional father. 4/5.
A One Mann’s Movies review of “Our Father” (2024) (From the 2024 Irish Film Festival, London).
A short film I saw at last month’s Irish Film Festival, “Our Father” is the directorial debut of British comedienne Aisling Bea. Aisling has always tickled my funny-bone and this delightful little short is hopefully the gateway to the direction of a comedy feature film. Based on this work, that is…
The Big Data Show EXPLORES Cyber Security and Data Citizenship
THEATRE: The Big Data Show EXPLORES Cyber Security and Data Citizenship @playdoctorduffy @rupertg @OrthrusStudios @TheCSoA @perthacademy @StirUni @AltEcon @YouthLinkScot @suzyGlass @HorsecrossPerth @untheatre @CreativeScots @WestonFdn @CyberResScot
The Big Data Show (TBDS) is a ground-breaking immersive experience for young people (S1) weaving theatre and gaming together to explore cyber security and data citizenship.
It is about cyber resilience and being a citizen in the digital age. It is about knowing who knows what about you, what you are ‘agreeing’ to when you download an app, how to live with the challenges of social media…and it’s a…
On a remote Scottish island, an estranged mother and daughter are at loggerheads over how best to save their children. While Ella fights for her son's future, her mother Margret is terrified that Ella’s environmental activism will her get killed. Trapped together until one of them gives in or lashes out, it quickly becomes clear that not all mothers know best.
Around them, at the mercy of the brutal North Sea and Mother Nature, their close-knit community is being pushed to the brink in a world which is changing too fast for them to survive.
Written by the award-winning 2015 IASH / Traverse Theatre Creative Fellow Clare Duffy and directed by Traverse Associate Director Gareth Nicholls, (Ulster American), Arctic Oil grapples with how trying to save the world could end up destroying those closest to us – and even ourselves.
Clare Duffy is a playwright and director. We welcome her play Arctic Oil to Traverse 1 next week. Here are her answers to our 10 Questions…
Clare Duffy. Image: Lauren McLay
1. What sparked the original idea for this piece and how has it evolved?
The original idea for Arctic Oil was the arrest of the Arctic 30 in 2013. I thought it was just so extraordinary that a peaceful protest, in international waters, was shot at and the activists arrested. They were held in prison for 3 months. I thought I was going to write a play about the group dynamics of working in a large team on a boat. Then I had my son in the middle of writing this play and when I came back to it after 6 months I had to completely re-imagined it. I still had the same concerns about how interpersonal politics play out against the global. But I couldn’t help re-thinking the context as I struggled with sleep deprivation and balancing work with parenthood. So the play became about how someone might feel ‘left behind’ from such a heroic team, watching the world through the context of nappies and sleeplessness. It became a much more personal and emotional play thanks to my son, partner and our first couple of years working out how to be parents.
2. What three words would you use to sum up the play?
BIG BIG LOVE.
3. How do you want audiences to feel having watched the show?
This is tricky because people will feel what they feel. I don’t have any idea what I want them to feel. But I do want them to feel. I would be really proud if it made people feel something.
Neshla Caplan in rehearsals for Arctic Oil. Image: Lauren McLay
4. Do you have a favourite line or moment in the play?
I like really like it when the mother shows the daughter the inside of her mouth.
5. Can you tell us about your writing environment?
It depends. Sometimes I write in bed propped up on cushions under a duvet and it’s as if I forget about my body entirely and I go into the world of the play I’m writing. Sometimes I sit on public benches and scribble in notepads with a pencil. Sometimes I like pulling a table in front of a window at home and when I’m stuck I can look at the trees, birds, cats and all things outside. I do quite a lot of writing when I’m walking too. Just pounding through the characters’ lines and actions as I walk. Then there is always a stage when the whole thing gets broken down into titles on postcards and put up in different colours on the wall.
6. If you could spend a day with the characters in Arctic Oil what would you do together?
Eat breakfast in the morning. Full Scottish for Margret and full vegan for Ella. I’d have poached eggs with smoked salmon. Then we’d go for a walk along a beach. Probably St Ninian's beach because it’s so beautiful. Then we would go for a big pub lunch somewhere good but not too expensive. We might go and see a film together in the afternoon but it would have to be a relaxed screening because Sam (Ella’s son) is only 18 months right now. He could probably have a nap. Then we’d go home and watch TV and drink wine after Sam went to sleep. I think we would have a lovely time. As long as we didn’t talk about politics.
Jennifer Black and Neshla Caplan in rehearsals for Arctic Oil. Image: Lauren McLay
7. Can you tell us about your first play?
The first full-length play I wrote was called Crossings. It was inspired by my work as an LGBTQ+ youth worker. It was about a young girl who drags her girlfriend on the hunt for the killer of her best friend. It was a ghost story and a road story. It meant a lot to me.
8. Going on from that, what advice would you give to your younger playwriting self?
I wish I could have told my younger self to have more confidence. That just turning up every day to write, to think and work is the start of everything. It would be great wouldn’t it, not to doubt or be anxious about your work. I don’t know how possible it is really. Maybe self-doubt is part of what keeps you trying again and again. My mum always says ‘nothing is ever wasted’, she’s quoting the visual artist Bill Viola and it’s so true. All the mistakes and hardest moments are also the start of all the best things.
Jennifer Black in rehearsals for Arctic Oil. Image: Lauren McLay
9. What has been your most memorable theatre experience – either as a member of the audience or as part of the creative team?
I went to a workshop when I was still a student at the National Student Drama Festival. The workshop leader led a discussion about just this. Out of the whole group of about 40 there were only a couple of people who said a moment of writing was their most memorable experience. I was one of them. I saw Ian McKellen doing Richard III. His final speech was so thrilling. The workshop leader pointed out that it took Ian McKellen and Shakespeare for the most memorable theatre experience to be about writing. That’s always stayed with me.
More recently I found the libation giving at the opening to The Supplicant Women hugely moving. I love theatre that makes the audience aware of its presence as an audience, as a civic entity and this gesture captured that beautifully for me.
10. Are there any websites, books or other resources that you find particularly useful as a playwright?
I have loved being part of the Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland. Being a mentor has taught me huge amounts. They offer so many resources not least the chance to meet other writers. I also found being part of the Scottish Society of Playwrights massively important and helpful. The Arvon Foundation is really useful both as a participant and a course leader. I love reading about writing and writers. Most recently I read Margret Atwood’s On Writing and Writers, which was really great.
