Amazon is still delivering weird AI book ads to Kindles and I wonder if anyone can control this

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

"I don't know why I'm getting these weird kids' book ads on my Kindle," said my wife as she waved her Kindle Paperwhite at me. I glanced at the screen, which was locked but showed one of those screensaver book-cover ads Amazon likes to deliver unless you pay a little more to remove them. I saw a cute bear and a large-font title and shrugged back at my wife.

But I'd missed something. "You realize," my son who was nearby said, "That's an AI-generated book."

I grabbed the Kindle from my wife and looked more closely. On the cover was a heartwarming illustration of a boy hugging a bear. Nothing seemed amiss until I looked at the large-type title: "The Brave Bear Mountain Cimb". That's right "Cimb" not "Climb". Below the not-quite-right cover was the correct title: The Brave Bear Mountain Climb. I also noticed that there was no author listed on the cover.

A day later I saw another children's book on the same Kindle's sleep screen. It had another cute illustration and a lot more words. Roughly half of them were nonsense. They reminded me of some of the text I get when I ask one of the best generative AI engines to "imagine" something with specific text. It's never quite right.

If you don't own a Kindle reader, you may not be familiar with these screensaver ads. Because readers use E Ink, they can leave a persistent image on the screen – even when the system is off – because it takes no energy to maintain an E Ink image (only what you used to generate it). Usually, these ads appear when you press the power button to put your Kindle to sleep, and they're there until you turn the Kindle back on.

The write stuff

AI author — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

I was curious about where that Brave Bear book came from. Turns out there is a real The Brave Bear Mountain Climb by Bernadina Dilwalie. Dilwalie, however, is an online ghost. They have published no other books, and there's not a single Google Search result for the name. Perhaps that's why the AI authors chose her, or Bernadina is an AI author, too.

It's not news that the rise of generative AI has led to a flood of AI-generated books and best-seller knockoffs. And it turns out that Amazon's AI-generated book ads are not a new problem, and were first reported in April of this year, first on Reddit and then in a report in Futurism. That story even included a statement from Amazon that read, in part:

"We both proactively prevent books from being listed as well as remove books that do not adhere to those guidelines. Amazon’s ad policies aim to maintain a high customer experience bar for the ads that we show and all ads must meet Amazon Advertising Guidelines and Acceptance policies."

What is real

My takeaway is that Amazon has known about this issue for months and yet, we're still seeing AI-generated book ads on our devices.

My wife was confused by this steady stream of AI ad books but, since they were all for children and our kids are adults, there was little chance she would follow one of the ads and buy one. The issue is more fraught for kids and parents of young children who don't look too closely and then buy bait-and-switch AI-generated books.

The proliferation of AI-generated tomes has transformed Amazon into a minefield of misdirection. Books with too-perfect or oddly-formed cover illustrations could be AI-generated. Telltale signs include the word "heartwarming," weird misspellings, or double meanings that make no sense in either way. An example might be The Forest Defenders by Arun Kumar W (he has one other title to his name that features what looks like a very AI-generated illustration) . The cover depicts a pair of tortoises confronting a tiny white table. The overlayed text promises "A Tale story". Not "A Tail story" or "A Tall story". "Tale" makes zero sense, and is essentially a repetition of the word "story."

The proliferation of AI-generated tomes has transformed Amazon into a minefield of misdirection.

If you find one AI-generated book, you can usually find more by the same author. Maryam Amas appears to write in all genres. My favorite title may be, SAVE WATER :Do you know what am I? . In the detail for the book are photoshopped images that feature a stock-image kid reading AI-generated text superimposed on what is supposed to be a photo of the book.

Most of these AI books are published through Amazon. To be fair, most AI authors are probably using Amazon's self-publishing system (I've used it myself), and the scale of self-publishing is such that perhaps Amazon is struggling to keep up. On the other hand, I'm certain that Amazon could put an AI-content checking in place and while there would surely be false positives ("Do you write like an AI?!") it could cut down significantly on all this garbage.

That Amazon is failing to stop the proliferation of these AI books and then delivering ads for them to Amazon Kindles is less forgivable. Is its system so hands-off that it simply culls books based on assumed topics of interest and delivers them to the devices without any checks and balances.? That's obviously a recipe for disaster.

What Amazon is doing

I reported the ad to Amazon and Tim Gillman, Amazon spokesperson, offered this response, which does not diverge much from what the company told Futurism some months ago. Still, the last bit about the book and status of those ads is notable.

“We aim to provide the best possible shopping, reading, and publishing experience, and we are constantly evaluating developments that impact that experience, which includes the rapid evolution and expansion of generative AI tools. All books in the store must adhere to our content guidelines, regardless of how the content was created. We both proactively prevent books from being listed as well as remove books that do not adhere to those guidelines.

When we become aware of an issue, we investigate and act quickly to protect customers. We suspend publisher accounts when warranted to prevent repeated abuse. We are committed to protecting customers from bad actors attempting to abuse our services, and we continue to invest in improving our protections.

Amazon’s ad policies aim to maintain a high customer experience bar for the ads that we show and all ads must meet Amazon Advertising Guidelines and Acceptance policies. The content in question is no longer available for sale and no new ads will be served.”

The other morning I took a peek at my wife's Kindle to see if there were any more weird AI kids' book ads appearing on the screen save state. Nope, just another book that is more in alignment with her tastes. On my own Kindle Paperwhite, I've never seen those weird AI ads. Here's hoping I never do.

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.

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