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If you spend any time online — regardless of whether you’ve wanted to — you’ve encountered AI. Whether AI is an interest or a concern, it’s hard to avoid it either way. For those choosing to be a little more analog and spend more time with their head in a book rather than online, you may think you can easily avoid AI, but we have some bad news. AI is coming for your books, too.
AI-written books are flooding the e-book and audiobook markets on both Libby and the Kindle Store. Luckily, AI-narrated audiobooks are easy to spot once you know what to look for. E-books, on the other hand, that’s when things get a little tricky. If you want to keep AI out of your Kindle or e-reader library, here’s how to spot AI-generated e-books and audiobooks in the Kindle Store and beyond.
How to identify AI-written books
Identifying AI-written books requires a bit of sleuthing since that information isn’t disclosed. Kindle Direct Publishing, the platform on which indie and self-published authors directly upload their books to the Kindle Store, does require authors to disclose if their book has AI-generated or -assisted content; however, that disclosure is not shared publicly.
So what are you to do? Here’s how we recommend identifying AI-written books.
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Search the author’s name
Investigating the author, Devendra Singh on GoodReads shows an expansive but certainly unrealistic collection of titles.
Credit: Screenshot / GoodReads
If you find a book online and have your suspicions around AI, the best thing you can do is search the author’s name. An internet search should direct you to a website or publisher information, but if the search isn’t turning up anything, then it’s probably AI.
Some AI-authored content does appear somewhat legit, with a GoodReads page, but look carefully at the listings. If the author seems to have a random assortment of titles or more published work than realistically possible, that’s another sign that it’s AI and not a person penning them.
Look for typos in the title and description
“We do promise” and “We are promise to you” are the obvious signs of AI-written content.
Credit: Screenshot / Amazon
A common tactic of AI-generated books is to copy popular titles, so if you’re looking at a title and it seems a little off, then there’s probably a reason for that. AI-written content often gives itself away with awkward phrasing and typos. Read through the title and descriptions carefully for errors, as that often means it’s AI-generated and didn’t get a human edit.
Examine the cover for AI-generated images
We ran one of Devendra Singh’s book covers through AI or Not, and it’s likely AI-generated.
Credit: Screenshot / AI or Not
If you don’t want AI anywhere in your book, then you should also check the cover. AI art is getting a little too good these days, and because of that, you might not recognize it immediately. We’ve tested several tools to detect AI art, and AI or Not has an 80 percent success rate.
How to spot AI-read audiobooks
Check the narrator
AI-narrated audiobooks will have virtual voice, digital voice, or synthesized voice listed narrator.
Credit: Screenshot / Amazon
Even if a book isn’t written with AI, that doesn’t mean the audiobook is safe. AI-narrated audiobooks are becoming all too common, with Libby users spotting books with a digital voice or synthesized voice listed as the narrator. Unlike with AI authorship, AI narration is openly disclosed and easy to spot.
