The company’s Kindle Direct Publishing, a platform which allowed many authors to self-publish their work as e-books, has established new rules for Kindle books, in a statement released recently: “Beginning today, when you publish a new title or make edits to and republish an existing title through KDP, you will be asked whether your content is AI-generated.”
The feature is more thorough, allowing authors to disclose whether AI was used at any point in the writing process, with the settings of “AI-generated” (defined as “text, images or translations created by an AI-based tool”, even if subsequently edited) and “AI-assisted” (defined as a work created by a human but where AI was used to “edit, refine, error-check, or otherwise improve”), though the latter is not obligatory to disclose.
This change was prompted by the onslaught of complaints about AI-produced works being passed off as the work of other authors. In August, author Jane Friedman criticized the platform for allowing the publication of books that she believed were created by AI tools and were falsely listed as being written by her. Amazon is taking a firmer stand against such works, announcing that it is it is “actively monitoring the rapid evolution of generative AI and (its) impact…on reading, writing, and publishing” to remain “committed to providing the best possible shopping, reading, and publishing experience for our authors and customers”.
Amazon has not announced how this new feature will show on the platform, or whether it will treat AI-generated work differently from human-created publications. It has also not yet announced what it will do with the information about AI provided by sellers.
Words by Catarina Vicente
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