Author discovers AI-generated counterfeit books written in her name on Amazon | Hacker News Reader

Author discovers AI-generated counterfeit books written in her name on Amazon

arstechnica.com

48 pointsspecto8 comments

How surprising; the same company which already doesn't give a damn about counterfeit products and fake reviews now doesn't care about fake books.

And the blame will all be on AI instead.

Yea I mean who needs regulations around technology amirite?

Externalizing the social costs of AI to the common people and creators while extracting most of the value.

The author has no real recourse here, no control. Meanwhile tech companies have been laying off integrity staff and replaced them with ineffective AI to maintain their profit margins

It’s not that AI is causing this - it happened before, just a human scale - but we really need to force these companies to manage the consequences of the at scale business / monopolies they have been allowed to operate or we end up in an entirely dystopian situation where ‘nothing can be done’.

Funny how CFAA only gets trotted out for users acting against the company. When the company is complicit in fraud and abuse against users, there's just nothing anybody can do. The right to bear arms does not extend to cyberspace, and Swartz found out the hard way where vigilantism gets you.

This is Backpage all over again. Maybe publish a sex trafficking or terrorism how-to manual written in Sam Altman's name (or just start selling people on Amazon) and Congress will get involved.

There are a ton of AI-generated or maybe copy/paste books on amazon now.

I was thinking thinking about buying a breville air fryer pro. Wow, it seemed it was such a good oven, there were cookbooks specifically for this model!

...and then I realized that not only were the books copy/pasted or ai-generated, but so were all the reviews. They were even submitted, all of them, 5-star, the same day.

I complained and amazon said the reviews were legitimate. They also said they couldn't take any action because I hadn't bought the book. So I bought it, complained, and returned it and then they looked at it.

If you are interested, here's a similar book for a different brand air fryer that hasn't been complained about.

There are a LOT of 5-star reviews May 31st:

https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B0C6C315SN/

Before: fact checkers no longer needed at newspapers because internet.

Now: fact checkers no longer needed anywhere because internet.

Future: wat is fact?

We live in a post truth world. That's intentional. Once they can make you lose sight of reality, they can make you do anything.

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