Canadian authors warn readers that AI dupes of their books are popping up on Amazon
Getting fake books taken down is ‘a game of whack-a-mole,' says writers’ union
Toronto author Catherine Tsalikis rushed the release of her Chrystia Freeland biography right before Christmas after the deputy prime minister's sudden resignation.
Tsalikis was checking Amazon to see how the launch was going for Chrystia: From Peace River to Parliament Hill when she noticed something odd.
Right below her book, which was published by House of Anansi Press, another book was a shadow of the real thing.
The cover featured an image of a Freeland lookalike. The author shared Tsalikis's first name.
The title? Chrystia from Peace River: A Small-Town Girl's Journey to Parliament Hill.
After reading the book's preview, Tsalikis concluded it was written by artificial intelligence.
"It's a weird mirror image, like a refracted image of my words," Tsalikis said in an interview.
"The sentiment is the same, but the words are different."
It's one example of many, according to Canadian authors and advocates. The AI dupes can be easy to spot for those who know the signs, but they speak to the health of the online marketplace for publishing.
Calgary author Jessica Waite, who wrote A Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards, published last year by Simon & Schuster, fell victim to an AI fake on Amazon.
It ripped off the title, cover and content of her book — including the names of her son and husband. Scammers also managed to publish a fake prequel under her name, linked to Waite's author profile on Amazon.
Waite said because her book is a memoir about her late husband, it felt all the more invasive to see her story used in this way.
"At first I felt kind of disgusted and invaded and I wanted to take it down, but it's not very easy," she said.
Both authors reported the fakes they saw to Amazon.
Tsalikis and Waite both said the fakes that took advantage of their works were clearly of inferior quality.
They acknowledge, however, that consumers may buy the knockoffs, either because the real one is sold out, or they aren't paying close attention.
Waite said she feels scared about the situation, but not because of potential lost profits.
"What it points me to is that online publishing is in bad shape," she said. "We're in an age of full disinformation in every single sphere, anywhere that people can be polluting the space — that's happening."
Why Amazon?
Amazon's self-publishing tool has a low barrier to entry. With no upfront costs, Amazon will print and ship a book and give an author 60 per cent royalties minus the printing costs.
Waite said it's a great tool for new authors, but for a scammer, there's very little risk.
Amazon detects and removes content that violates its guidelines through machine learning, automation and human reviewers, according to its content guidelines.
"We continue to enhance our protections against non-compliant content, and our process and guidelines will keep evolving as we see changes in AI-driven publishing," an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CBC.
Waite said she would like to see a proof of identity requirement brought in to help track down bad actors. Amazon says it has started using identity verification for its self-publishing tool, so authors and publishers may have to show their government-issued ID before they can publish.
John Degen, CEO of The Writers' Union of Canada, said Amazon publishing and generative AI are new tools in an old scam — the union has been fighting pirated and fake books for years.
"We're playing a game of whack-a-mole," Degen said.
"As soon as you manage to target and score a hit on one of these bad actors, there's another one popping up somewhere else. And we could be doing that endlessly, which is not what we want to do as authors."
Degen said he'd like to see the federal government step in with a mandated label for AI-generated content — so consumers have a fair choice and don't have to decipher what's real.
While the initial dupe of Tsalikis's book on Freeland was taken down, more continue to crop up.
Currently, putting Chrystia Freeland's name into Amazon shows results for Tsalikis's biography and books Freeland has authored herself — interspersed with fakes.
Degen said he sees an irony in that, after years of lobbying the federal government to better protect legitimate authors against the perils of AI.
"Maybe this is what we need. Maybe if Chrystia Freeland becomes the prime minister, she'll see the value of regulating this because of what's happening right here with her own books."
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