Amazon has a big problem as AI-generated books flood Kindle Unlimited

Along with the impressive demonstrations and sounds of alarm that have come with the dawn of generative-text chatbots, we’re also now seeing some of the more questionable and perhaps less desirable outcomes starting to materialize. 

Authors and several news outlets have recently reported a significant uptick in AI-generated books showing up in multiple best-seller lists, many seemingly sounding like nonsense. 

Self-publishing, such as via Amazon’s Kindle Direct Program, has become a way for many genuine authors to bring their work to the public and build a following without the help of a large publisher. Because these self-publishing capabilities are purposely easy to sign up for, it seems anyone can generate endless AI-written books and upload them to be sold on Amazon’s eBook store and make them available for reading via Kindle Unlimited. 

Recently, an indie author, Caitlyn Lynch, tweeted about noticing that only 19 of the best sellers in the Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Romance eBooks top 100 chart on Amazon were real, legit books. The rest were nonsensical and incoherent, and seemingly AI-generated. 

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The Motherload website later looked into dozens of books on the platform and saw that a few days after Lynch’s tweets, the AI books had vanished from the best-seller lists, probably removed by Amazon. 

They were, however, still available for purchase, and had enjoyed a significant amount of visibility before vanishing. Also, as Lynch very understandably speculates, the mass uploading of AI-generated books could be used to facilitate click-farming, where 'bots' click through a book automatically, generating royalties from Amazon Kindle Unlimited, which pays authors by the amount of pages that are read in an ebook. So, it doesn’t matter that these books disappear. The people running such a scheme could just upload as many as they like to replace the removed ones. 

A major concern quickly emerges both for authors and readers – most of us readers are seeking out books that, at least for now, are written by human authors, and this makes it harder to find those kinds of books. Lynch, elaborating on her views in a Twitter thread, emphasized that this “will … be the death knell for Kindle Unlimited” if Amazon cannot contain this.  

Amazon Warehouse

(Image credit: Amazon)

What is Amazon doing about it?

Motherboard reached out to Amazon and received a reply that stated that it had “clear guidelines” for which books can be listed for sale and would investigate when concerns are raised in order to protect both readers and authors. It didn’t explicitly state that it was making an effort specifically to address the apparent spam-like persistent uploading of nonsensical and incoherent AI-generated books. It’s worth Amazon taking an active approach to rectify this issue in order to reassure readers that it’s worth continuing to support authors via ebook sales and page views (which result in royalties for authors on Kindle Unlimited), and reassure authors that it’s worth putting their work on sale on Amazon. 

We’ve also contacted Amazon to find out what it is doing about this, and we’ll update this story when we hear back.

AI-generated and assisted books aren’t totally new, and followed quite quickly after the debut of text-generator and image-generator Artificial Intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney. These books were already contentious, as many artists and authors felt that such generated books denigrated the work it takes to put together, write, and publish a book. 

Furthermore, AI generators work by scraping huge amounts of visual and text content from the internet – some of which the creators of this content never consented to. 

Mass-flooding of best-seller lists with nonsensical books will only intensify these concerns of quality control and authenticity. It’s not clear why there is such a boom in AI-generated books appearing in best-seller lists, but many speculate that it’s due to bot-farming, where large amounts of books are automatically generated and published. In my opinion, if this is the case then it’s definitely up to Amazon to address this problem, as authors and readers don’t have the technical capabilities to counteract such operations.

AI Danger

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Not just about plagiarism

Chris Cowell, a software developer, talked to the Washington Post about such an instance where an AI had plagiarized his work, which was sold on Amazon. AI is still taking work from human authors, which raises concerns of plagiarism and copyright infringement, but there’s also the matter of AI text generators spitting out misinformation. 

That can then lead to one AI-written book using text from another AI-written book, without any fact-checking, and (especially in the instance of non-fiction books), a worrying feedback loop is created that spreads misinformation and makes it hard to pin down the origin of statements. 

For now, maybe Amazon will optimize its process of removing AI-generated nonsensical content as it appears, but greater efforts are needed. As of May 2023, Amazon’s Kindle Publishing didn’t require sellers to disclose if the book had been written (or illustrated) with the help of AI generators such as ChatGPT or Midjourney.

There's also a big problem that continues to plague Amazon and other online marketplaces for a multitude of products, and books are no exception: fake reviews. Text AI generators make this worse by making it easier to flood a review section both in the content and quantity. With Prime Day coming up, make sure you check out our guide on how to spot fake reviews on Amazon.

Unfortunately, along with all the positive new things that are possible with AI generators, inevitably, they can also be misused. Hopefully, Amazon acknowledges the growing concerns coming from both authors and readers, and makes efforts that help set a precedent for protecting human-created works – and their audiences.

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You can finally get unlimited Google Photos storage but there’s a catch

A new Google One membership is on the way, offering users unlimited Google Photos cloud storage – however it’s only available to T-Mobile customers in the US, and it’ll cost $ 15 per month. 

Google Photos delivers one of the best photo cloud storage services – ideal for users who upload a lot of high-res images. T-Mobile’s latest Google One membership plan, which the mobile network provider says is launching soon, will also give users 2TB of cloud storage across Gmail and Google Drive. This matches the current top-tier Google One subscription package offered to all Google account holders.

What makes the mobile brand’s announcement unique is that not even Google is giving away unlimited Photos storage for high-quality uploads. 

The One membership

It wasn’t that long ago that Google Photos used to offer unlimited high-quality uploads – a promise it had kept since its unveiling in 2015. 

However back in June 2021, the company started limiting basic users to just 15GB free cloud storage across Google Photos, Drive, and Gmail. 

In a move that mirrors Apple’s own iCloud expanded storage subscription options, media-heavy users looking to expand or upgrade their cloud storage options must join the Google One subscription service. 

Google One is billed as ‘one membership to get more out of Google’. The packages, which are available on a Basic, Standard, and Premium subscription tier, includes perks like expanded Google Drive cloud storage and a VPN for Android and iOS – all of which can be shared with up to five family and friends.  

Finding the right Google One plan

The newest option builds on T-Mobile’s two existing Google One packages: $ 5 a month nets customers 500GB of storage, while a monthly fee of $ 10 delivers 2TB of cloud storage without unlimited Google Photos. 

However, if it makes you feel better, note that T-Mobile’s unlimited photo and video storage plan is only available to the main account holder. 

T-Mobile’s unlimited Google Photos plan will be available from April 26 2022. 

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Wordle Unlimited will scratch your twice-daily Wordle itch

You don’t need us to tell you that Wordle is pretty popular – but some people want more than just a single game per day. If that’s you, then Wordle Unlimited is the new bookmark you’re going to want in your expanding list of the best Wordle spinoffs.

The premise is as simple as you might think: when you’ve finished a game (because you’ve become a ninja at how to win Wordle every day), a simple press of Enter will start a new one, and you can spend your train ride, boring dinner or work-avoiding toilet break gloriously swimming in millions of Wordle words.

However, unlike the now-NY-Times-owned ‘standard’ Wordle, there are loads of customization features that users might like on Wordle Unlimited – for instance, you can set your own word length between 4-11 letters, or move the position of the ‘Enter’ key so you don’t accidentally put in a letter when you didn’t mean to.

One of the key problems with a never-ending version of Wordle is that you don't have the community spirit that comes with everyone in the world being challenged with the same word each day. Wordle Unlimited addresses (and in our view, enhanced) that problem: you can start a Wardle, where you challenge your pals to play the same Wordle. This way you still get that community feel of all your closest people all trying to get the daily Wordle.

Better still – for those that want to be a little bit more evil, you can set the word for your circle to all have a go at, so the war can be truly personal.

It’s going to be interesting if Wordle Unlimited is around for much longer – it was brought to life in January, but given it’s using Wordle’s name and a very similar user interface, we can see the NY Times legal team taking a look.

How to ‘install’ Wordle Unlimited on your iPhone

One of the handy features of Safari on the iPhone is the ability to set a website as a pseudo-app. It’s not something you get from the App Store, but if you navigate to the Wordle Unlimited site on Safari, tag the ‘Share’ icon (a box with an arrow pointing upwards) and click ‘Add to home screen’ option.

Clicking the Wordle Unlimited icon on your phone will take you to a site that is shorn of the URL bar, and you can focus on your game. It’s basically similar to a very stripped-down app.

If you’re not certain this Unlimited version is for you – and, to be honest, we’re with you, as the simplicity of the game is what sold us on it – then you can just save the Wordle game now and play in offline mode for years to come, as it could well go behind a paywall at some point and join the rest of the NY Times games.

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Voxi SIM only deals: boosted data, unlimited social media and cheap prices

Facebook, Whatsapp, Snapchat – they're all constant drains on your data, slowly pulling you to the inevitable 'you've run out of data' text from your provider. But Voxi and its latest SIM only deals have a solution to that.

Known for its ability to offer you unlimited access to social media and its persistent appearance in-between your Love Island watch sessions, Voxi is a strong option for anyone needing a new SIMO.

And right now seems like the best time to get one as it is currently offering boosted data on its two best plans. That means an additional 2GB or 5GB of data each month depending on which plan you choose.

And as another bonus, all Voxi's plans run for on 1-month rolling contracts so you can stay as long as you want or leave straight away. Of course, if you're not finding yourself scrolling through Instagram for hours or constantly checking Facebook, there are other SIM plans that may fit your needs more.

We've listed Voxi's data boosted deals and the best options from the rest of the market below for you to look through and compare.

Voxi's impressive SIM only deals:

What other SIM only deals are available?

While these offers are very attractive, there are a load of other SIM only deals you can go for. Three has been ruling the SIMO world for a while now with some excellent value offers. For the cheaper option, Three has a 8GB of data SIM for just £8 a month. Or go with its unlimited data offer costing just £18 a month

And it's worth taking a look at its closest competition – Smarty. You pay £15 a month for 50GB of data and get the benefits of a 1-month rolling contract. And, you can tether your devices so you can use your big data plan on your phone, tablet and computer.

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