Among the biographies published shortly after Lelyveld's death was Beyond the Byline: Unraveling the Heart of Joseph Lelyveld: The Man Who Smoked His Way Through History. According to GPTZero, a program that recognizes AI-generated text, there is a 97% chance that the book was created by AI.
Tom Smothers from the 1960s television show “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” was another hot topic. Smothers died on December 26, and on the same day a new book with a clunky and ungrammatical title became available on Amazon: “Tom Smothers: Revealing 4 Untold Truth About Half of Smothers Brother.”
Biographies of Toby Keith, a country music star, also appeared following his death this month. One contained an unusual disclaimer: “The author and publisher assume no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the content,” it said. “Resemblance to real people is coincidental.”
Some of those books, like “Chita Rivera: Biography and Memoirs of West Side Story Star Chita Rivera,” were available on Kindle Unlimited, which pays authors per page view. Other titles are available in a Kindle or paperback edition for a few dollars: For $3.25, customers could get a Kindle copy of Biography of Norman Lear a TV Legend Dies at 101: A Comedy Legend Norman Lear Biography, Legacy, Achievement and Things” You probably don’t know anything about him
Amazon declined to answer questions about sales of these books, but publishing them doesn't appear to be a solid business. Few of them had customer reviews, and those that did did poorly. Disappointed readers described one book as “a 60-page booklet,” another as a “glorified booklet” and a “rip-off.”
Even with such small payouts, simply creating these books could be worth it if the sales volume was high enough. One author, Bettie Melton, publishes several books per month. Recent titles published under this name include biographies of recently deceased celebrities such as Henry Kissinger and musician Myles Goodwyn, as well as books about people who are still very much alive, such as football coach Bill Belichick.
“Statistically speaking, it’s almost impossible that these were written by humans,” said Edward Tian, the founder of GPTZero.
Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing policies require authors and publishers to tell the company whether their content is AI-generated. Lindsay Hamilton, an Amazon spokeswoman, said the company allows AI-generated books to be sold on its website unless they result in “a poor customer experience.” up to GPTZero they are most likely all AI creations – Amazon has removed them.
“We have taken proactive and reactive measures to evaluate the content in our store and have removed a number of titles that violate our policies,” Hamilton said.
Amazon said it cannot provide contact information for those who publish on its site and that it is difficult to find out who produces these books. Often there is no publisher listed and the named author appears to be fictitious, or even the name of a deceased person found on the Internet.
Lori M. Graff has been listed as the author of books about Keith and Lelyveld, among others.
But at the top of a Google search for “Lori M. Graff” is an obituary for a woman who died in 2016.
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