Author says 'AI-generated' books were published under her name. Amazon wouldn't take them down
Jane Friedman says the online retailer only removed the books after speaking out on social media
Jane Friedman writes and reports on the publishing industry. Recently, five new titles including How to Write and Publish an eBook Quickly and Make Money, were listed under the U.S.-based author's name on Amazon.
The problem? She didn't write them.
Friedman believes the books were generated using artificial intelligence (AI) and published under her name by someone else.
They were removed from the online marketplace earlier this week according to The Guardian, but only after a fight with the publisher
"I was expecting something like this to happen eventually. I just didn't think I would find myself leading the charge on fraudulent work in my name," Friedman told As it Happens guest host Peter Armstrong.
A reader, who had been looking for Friedman's books on Amazon, stumbled upon the suspicious texts and alerted the author.
Friedman says she felt violated and angry after investigating the "substandard" work for herself.
"The books are just bloviating garbage. It was repetitive, like a really bad student essay [and] didn't have anything really meaningful in it," says Friedman.
The books were also listed on Goodreads, an online book rating and recommendation site itself owned by Amazon. But Friedman says getting them removed from that site was far easier.
The author says the volunteers who manage the Goodreads site realized the faked titles couldn't actually be written by her pretty quickly.
Removing a published work from Amazon, however, requires proof of copyright or trademark infringement. Because neither were the issue in her case, she hit a wall.
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Pamela Samuelson, Co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, says this is still a case of illegal misrepresentation.
"Amazon has to take fraud and misrepresentation seriously, too. As a platform, you have a duty to investigate and take down material that is not liable," she said.
Friedman was able to "reach human beings with critical thinking skills" when she reached out to Goodreads. With Amazon, however, she could only report the issue by filling out a form.
It's also impossible to reach the person who uploaded the books, she says — only Amazon has that information.
Friedman says if it weren't for social media pressure and help from members of the Authors Guild advocacy group — which Friedman is a member of — the works fraudulently published under her name might still exist on Amazon.
Shawn Bayern, a law professor at Florida State University, says cases like Friedman's might become more common, as generative AI grows in popularity.
He hopes, though, that people will come to recognize AI-generated fakes more easily. "I think people can eventually adapt. For example, they could come to know intuitively that a realistic-looking video doesn't necessarily show the truth," Bayern said.
An Amazon spokesperson told the CBC in an email that they "have clear content guidelines governing which books can be listed for sale and promptly investigate any book when a concern is raised. We welcome author feedback and work directly with authors to address any issues they raise and where we have made an error, we correct it."
That doesn't describe Friedman's experience, she said, even though she understands why it took them so long to respond.
"They have countless people contacting them every minute of the day saying, 'take this down.' And it may be perfectly legitimate, but it makes it really hard for real, authentic claims like mine to get through," she said.
Regardless, Friedman says the onus should be on the publishers like Amazon to make sure such content is removed.
"They can't put the pressure on the author to police this," she said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Interview with Jane Friedman produced by Sarah Melton
