Many mushroom identification and foraging books being sold on Amazon are likely generated by AI with no human authorship. These books could provide dangerous misinformation and potentially lead to deaths if people eat poisonous mushrooms based on the AI’s inaccurate descriptions. Two New York mushroom societies have warned about the risks of AI-generated foraging guides. Experts note that safely identifying wild mushrooms requires careful research and experience that an AI system does not have. Amazon has since removed some books flagged as AI-generated, but more may exist. Detecting AI-generated books and authors can be difficult as the systems can fabricate author bios and images. Relying on multiple credible sources, as well as guidance from local foraging groups, is advised for safely pursuing mushroom foraging.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but why?
Robert Evans wrote a post on it and did multiple podcast episodes.
The TL&DR is that AI-generated children’s books are crap, without a coherent storyline or any literary niceties like “foreshadowing” and “beginning middle and end”. Kids are still learning what stories look like, so if you hand them AI-generated stuff they might know it’s unsatisfying, but they can’t put into words why their books are wrong.
Sadly, it’s another hustle. If you spend enough time on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TIkTok, you may see ads for “business opportunities,” which include a bunch of ways to spend lots of wasted time on things that will supposedly give you “passive income”. A lot of them consist of stringing together crude tools to supposedly run a business without actually running anything. For instance, you can learn how to set up a business on Amazon where someone else manufactures your products and Amazon stores and ships them, and supposedly you’re now a business owner. Obviously, it doesn’t work.
One version of this is becoming a “published author” by having stuff written either by ChatGPT or what are essentially slaves in the global south, and then self-publishing it as ebooks on Amazon.
Again, there’s no real money or sense of accomplishment, but people are desperate, and so people try it.
No “big” money… but some people have either little income, or live in a country where even a “small” amount of money can go a long way.