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'Nonfiction' Book About Maui Wildfire 'Smells of AI,' Gets Pulled From Amazon [View all]
https://gizmodo.com/ai-book-about-maui-wildfire-pulled-from-amazon-1850751250Wildfires in Maui have devastated the communities in Hawaii over the last week, but a new book listed on Amazon about the natural disaster has raised eyebrows from reviewers.
The book, titled Fire and Fury: The Story of the 2023 Maui and its Implications for Climate Change, is an 86-page narrative of the recent wildfires in Hawaii that has a tinge of generative AI. The book has since been removed from the Amazon store, but an archived version of the listing shows 22 reviews, all of which are one star. Some reviewers believe that the book was written with generative AI like ChatGPT, with one such review claiming that the book “smells of AI.”
-snip-
That very well may be the case, since, as The Register notes, there are some bizarre circumstances surrounding the publication. The book’s description on its Amazon page uses the phrase “the book” to begin five of its seven sentences. The description also mentions that the book covers the timeframe of August 8th to 11th, despite the book itself being listed on Amazon on August 10th.
-snip-
But the evidence that the book was simply churned out by a machine is overwhelming. Fire and Fury is credited to Dr. Miles Stones, whose Amazon bio reads “I’d rather not say.” Stones also has a profile on GoodReads, with all of their books having been published in or after June 2023. A majority of these books are nonfiction and feature clearly AI-generated art as well as overwhelmingly negative reviews.
-snip-
The book, titled Fire and Fury: The Story of the 2023 Maui and its Implications for Climate Change, is an 86-page narrative of the recent wildfires in Hawaii that has a tinge of generative AI. The book has since been removed from the Amazon store, but an archived version of the listing shows 22 reviews, all of which are one star. Some reviewers believe that the book was written with generative AI like ChatGPT, with one such review claiming that the book “smells of AI.”
-snip-
That very well may be the case, since, as The Register notes, there are some bizarre circumstances surrounding the publication. The book’s description on its Amazon page uses the phrase “the book” to begin five of its seven sentences. The description also mentions that the book covers the timeframe of August 8th to 11th, despite the book itself being listed on Amazon on August 10th.
-snip-
But the evidence that the book was simply churned out by a machine is overwhelming. Fire and Fury is credited to Dr. Miles Stones, whose Amazon bio reads “I’d rather not say.” Stones also has a profile on GoodReads, with all of their books having been published in or after June 2023. A majority of these books are nonfiction and feature clearly AI-generated art as well as overwhelmingly negative reviews.
-snip-
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