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> "Two business school professors, curious about A.I. books and whether anyone actually likes them, gathered data about 10 million books published on Amazon ove
by aanet 3mo ago
> "Two business school professors, curious about A.I. books and whether anyone actually likes them, gathered data about 10 million books published on Amazon over the last five years. They found that the number of e-books published per month had tripled since the release of ChatGPT, to more than 300,000 at the end of last year, from around 100,000 in 2022. (Amazon said that its internal metrics did not show that level of growth, but would not share its figures.). Because romance sells, the professors thought it would be the genre most susceptible to A.I. intervention, but instead it was nonfiction — a term that should probably be used loosely in this context. While A.I.-assisted books received lower customer ratings than human-made ones, they deemed A.I.’s entry into the market a positive development, because the books were selling, if modestly. As economists, they told me, they’re less concerned with literary quality or customer satisfaction than revenue growth and market expansion."
One of the writers, Bill Johns, age 70, a retired cyber security consultant:
> "Mr. Johns now has 445 books for sale on Amazon. He orders a paperback copy of each one and keeps them on four rotating white bookshelves that are crowded awkwardly next to a couch in his living room. They all feature a photo of him in a serious dark suit — which is A.I. generated. “It was either that or put on a suit and take selfies,” he said."
- gherkinnn 3mo ago> As economists, they told me, they’re less concerned with literary quality or customer satisfaction than revenue growth and market expansion. As a human, I am concerned with these economists.
- javcasas 3mo agoDon't be. They are maximizing economy, at the cost of everything else. If anything, they are _perfect_ economists.
- Retric 3mo agoEconomics has long recognized the distinction between GDP and value creation, but not everyone in a field is going to produce the best work. Intangibles and unpaid work get ignored not because they cannot be included but because doing so is harder.
- ameliaquining 3mo agoIn fairness, we haven't heard in these economists' own words what their position is and it's possible that it's more nuanced than the author gives them credit for. (There's the quote about Fifty Shades but that's making a more defensible point and doesn't get into the "customer satisfaction" thing.)
- janalsncm 3mo agoI think they’re saying if AI text is causing people to buy (and presumably read) more, that’s a good thing. As in, if these marginal readers actually prefer AI texts, what does that say about human writing?
- superjan 3mo agoIt tells you that human attention can be gamed.
- janalsncm 3mo agoSure, and I feel something for the authors who are in it to write a high-quality novel. For the authors who are in it for the game, writing bottom of the barrel airport checkout line garbage, they were already trying to game people’s attention and they lost to a robot.
- mcphage 3mo agoThe existence of someone buying AI slop and being okay with it isn't the same as losing to a robot. Unless you mean losing that specific sale, but they're not outselling human authors yet, and it's not clear they will until their quality improves immensely.
- janalsncm 3mo agoI do mean losing that specific sale. I’m also referring to the economists who saw an increase in sales. This means there are marginal readers who previously didn’t buy any book but now buy AI slop books, or buy slop books in addition to human ones.
- mcphage 3mo ago> This means there are marginal readers who previously didn’t buy any book but now buy AI slop books, or buy slop books in addition to human ones. The former would be interesting, but seems unlikely. The later seems much more likely, since they’re already in the habit of buying books.
- jambalaya8 3mo agoThis is <sarcasm>good</sarcasm>. It should eventually make writing not a viably profitable career for anyone also. How the heck will people ever stand out and not just be grey goo? How will anyone know what is good versus garbage?
- dylan604 3mo agoWould publishers be willing to go to the level of pulling a Milli Vanilli where they hire people to make appearances as the author? Or would a litmus test to see if an author has attended any book signings be valid?
- pessimizer 3mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JT_LeRoy#Exposure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JT_LeRoy#Exposure
- close04 3mo agoThat sounds like a cost of doing business so the question is whether using this method increases profit more than any other.
- jambalaya8 3mo agoRemoving book tours increases profit once people know your name.
- jambalaya8 3mo agoFewer and fewer author appearances are in person. Book signings are being limited more and more to the author's name and are done via pre-order, with the readings and chats done online (especially with well-known authors). Book tours are much more rare than they were. Book tours are expensive.
- gtowey 3mo agoWe are going to go back to human-only networks for filtering the garbage into a trusted set of recommendations. Maybe where the only music you can trust are local artists you can see live. Or where the books you read are from a friend-of-a-friend who knows the author. Maybe the world of tomorrow looks more like the world we left behind.
- vidarh 3mo agoKDP now has a limit of 10 books per week to limit it unless you can convince them you're a legitimate publisher, and e.g. Draft2Digital does not submit ebooks to Amazon any more for the same reason. But you can still offer paperbacks via any number of third party providers that will be available via Amazon.
- bluefirebrand 3mo ago> One of the writers, Bill Johns, age 70, a retired cyber security consultant This is crazy to me. You're 70! Just be retired and fuck off, stop actively making the world a worse place!
- recursivecaveat 3mo agoThis is definitely the guy if anybody wants to peruse for themselves: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0F2RNXR5R https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0F2RNXR5R The most reviews I could find for any book was 6, most with 0. They cluster around 'dad' topics so I assume he selects the topics himself. I wonder how many he has actually read any substantial amount of. I'm always curious to what degree these people are conscious spammers vs koolaid drinkers. I find it funny that he considers it a ridiculous idea to have his picture actually taken once for an author photo lol.