by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell
I listened to a podcast panel the other day, all about (can you guess?) Artificial Intelligence. It was a robust discussion of what AI means for writers and publishers, as has been covered several times here at TKZ and just about everywhere else in the known universe. The podcast and transcript can be found here.
One of the interviewees is a romance writer who openly admits utilizing AI generative tools to crank out her product. She released 200 romance novels last year, under 12 different pseudonyms. She sees this as a business, starting out each project by researching what tropes are selling, then interacting with LLMs to set up an outline. “I can then ask the system to generate the first draft for me.”
When asked if she reveals to readers that the books are largely AI, she said she does not. The one time she did she got 14,000 death threats. (A post about the darkness of human nature run amok may be inserted here.)
Anyway…the question came up about whether readers ultimately care how a book is produced. Well, 14,000 wackos seem to. But what about the sane? Journalist Derek Newton offered an answer:
I think the reaction that she received is probably good anecdotal evidence of what the market wants and expects. And my personal view is that a minimum, readers ought to have information about where their books come from….is this a purely human written piece, a work from the mind and spirit and soul of an author? Is it a mix up, a mash up? Did the author have an idea and use AI to put it together? Or is it something that Claude or ChatGPT banged out in 15, is it on the Amazon bookshelves fifteen minutes later? Those are very different things. And I think since we can know that, we should share that information with readers. Maybe some readers don’t care. Maybe they prefer AI. Maybe they only wanna read human stories. But I think the minimum standard ought to be we ought to tell people. And one more thing. She did mention in the interview that she discloses to Amazon. Amazon does ask that, but they don’t share that information, and they don’t have any way to verify it. So any author could simply say no or check the box. Oh, yeah. I didn’t use AI, and there’s nobody looking into that. So sharing it with Amazon may be true, but it really doesn’t add any value to the process or to readers. Readers don’t get that information, and there’s no way to know it’s true.
New York Times reporter Alexandra Alter said:
Yeah, I think it matters, when readers have the choice to decide, okay, I would love to read something written by a human, or I’m curious. Can AI write a good story? I’ll check this out. I think, you know, some might be curious and wanna read something generated by AI. But my impression from comments I’ve seen online and from my conversations with readers is that one of the things that draws people to books is the opportunity to connect with another human mind. And most people, like that human connection and would would opt for that, you know, given the choice.
On the other hand, a listener offered this comment:
We all need to accept that AI is a part of the future. Just like in the past, people had to accept the advances in technology. I believe there should be transparency about AI use, but I think the panel would be surprised to find out that most readers don’t really care if a book is written by AI or an author. Most readers are reading for enjoyment, not loyalty to a particular author.
Ah, as Hamlet might have muttered over his Kindle, that is the question. I don’t believe for a moment that most readers don’t really care if a book is written by AI. If a reader gets massive reading pleasure from a book, they’ll want to a) find more by this author; and b) get to know this author on a human level. When I read my first Bosch, I wanted to know all about Michael Connelly. I read more Bosch, and wanted to meet Michael Connelly…and did, at a book signing. That mattered to me.
And when I’ve done signings and people come up and tell me how much they love my books, there’s no greater feeling in the world. I extend my human touch via my Substack newsletter and, of course, right here at the Zone.
However (and I’m just spitballing here), maybe there is an exception in the romance world. Category romances have always been the largest market in the publishing ecosystem. Many of these are written under pseudonyms. Voracious romance readers go through them like candy. Perhaps for this market human agency is not a big deal.
What about everywhere else?
Let’s talk about it. Do you care about human authorship? Do you care if an entrepreneur uses AI to crank out hundreds of “entertaining” books, making real money on volume? If you read a book and liked it, then found out it was 90% AI generated, how would you feel?
“Do you care about human authorship?”
Yes. I want to read books labored over by real human beings. And if you are going to use AI to write your books, be honest & admit it upfront. While I concur that technology change has been something we’ve had to deal with over time, switching from manual to electric typewriters or computers did not take away human thinking capacity. And I wonder, will said authors who generate their books through AI flop as speakers at writing events? Maybe they’ll be good fakers and able to have deep discussion on writing panels discussing their books. Maybe not.
“Do you care if an entrepreneur uses AI to crank out hundreds of “entertaining” books, making real money on volume?” I care about the negative impact on genuine authors of books and the mudslide it creates in the market.
“If you read a book and liked it, then found out it was 90% AI generated, how would you feel?”
Bottom line, if I read a book then found out the author generated it via AI, I would discontinue seeking out any further works by them. I find that prospect as disheartening as the trend I’m seeing on social media of videos that are supposed to be short, compelling animal videos but you realize they are AI generated.
For me I can’t divorce this topic from what I’m seeing in general — a declining ability of people to interact with one another as human beings, and how willing people are to give up thinking for themselves.
You speak for a lot of folks, BK.
AI doesn’t have a soul. It’s a word cranker outer. Adding to that, it was “trained” by plagiarized works. Non-Amazon publishers are feeling the hit of authors like the one you mention, who crank out AI slop in great volume. Draft2Digital has tried to cut back on some of their losses by implementing charges–nominal, but they’ve gotten some hostile blowback. Barnes & Noble has made changes for those using N&N Press. I wouldn’t be surprised to find Amazon finally pushing back against indie authors using AI beyond that ineffective checkbox.
The major problem is detection. A “clever” cranker-outer can massage the output (I’ve even heard that now there are bots that will purposely include “mistakes” to seem more “human.”) The other danger is that a legit author could be erroneously tagged (there’s em dashes in there!) Etc.
Agree all the way. As an em dash lover and user, I’m surprised I haven’t had more accusations of using AI.
I’m not sure if it’s about readers caring as much as readers being able to tell.
I recently saw an author whose work had been removed because it was ‘plagiarized’ when the offending book was her own, but a translation.
This answers a question for me. I read around five books every week. Many of them are the Amazon Free Reads and many others are digital library books. Lately, I’ve noticed that books by different authors have the same descriptions, same character actions, same style, and I thought it was just the current trend. Today’s post gave me a ’duh’ moment when I realized I must be seeing the results of AI generation. If the podcast book generator (can’t call her a writer or author, can we) put out 200 books in one year, I would imagine readers would be getting bored with reading the same story over and over with only the location and names changed. I know I am. This is why the only books I am willing to pay more than $.99 for are by real authors. I’ve enjoyed every book I’ve read by authors on TKZ, and appreciate the referrals. No one knows what will happen with AI and books in the future, but I believe it pays to fight against it any way we can.
An interesting side: my ten-year-old grandson looked at a picture I found online of a Hummingbird with its baby. His comment? “Cool, but you know that’s AI, right?” Maybe there’s hope for the future.
I do think there’s still a human stamp (if it’s from the heart) that readers can discern. Yes, even ten year olds, God bless ’em!
For me, the impact on a human-created industry/art form is the deal breaker. I feel the same about AI-generated books as I do when I see drones/machines picking fruit. In the name of “progress”, a human who needs to feed his/her family now stands in the unemployment line. Sorry if that sounds anti-progress, but that’s my take on it. It’s not progress in my book.
And at the very least, full disclosure from novel generators, please.