Until recently, no one had ever imagined themselves as published authors, even if we had all fantasized about it. However, after knowing about the ChatGPT artificial intelligence program, one can conclude that an opportunity has fallen into one’s lap.
Many self-proclaimed writers are employing technologies like ChatGPT to create children’s books, which are then illustrated with art created with AI-powered apps. For instance, Schickler, a salesperson from Rochester, New York, wrote a 30-page illustrated children’s e-book in a couple of hours using the AI program, which can generate blocks of text from simple instructions and offered it for sale in January through Amazon.com Inc’s self-publishing business.
According to Reuters, as of mid-February, there were over 200 e-books in Amazon’s Kindle store that listed ChatGPT as an author or co-author, including “How to Write and Create Content Using ChatGPT,” “The Power of Homework,” and poetry collection “Echoes of the Universe.” And the number is growing by the day.
On Amazon, there is even a new sub-genre: books about using ChatGPT that ChatGPT fully authors. However, because of the nature of ChatGPT and many authors’ failure to reveal their use of it, it is practically hard to obtain an accurate tally of how many e-books may have been authored by AI.
Furthermore, hundreds of instructions detailing how to construct a book in a matter of hours have sprung up on YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit. The topics covered include get-rich-quick techniques, nutrition advice, software development expertise, and recipes.
The software’s growth has already rattled some of the biggest technological companies, pushing Alphabet Inc and Microsoft Corp to rush out new AI-infused functions in Google and Bing, respectively.
The quick consumer adoption of ChatGPT has sparked a frenzy in industry circles, with investors pouring money into AI-focused startups and giving technology firms new purpose amid significant layoffs. Microsoft, for example, earned glowing attention for its normally inactive Bing search engine last month after showcasing a connection with ChatGPT.
As ChatGPT learns to write by scanning millions of pages of the previous content, there are already questions about its factual accuracy, and publishers are understandably concerned about the growing phenomenon.
“This is something we really need to be worried about, these books will flood the market, and a lot of authors are going to be out of work,” said Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the Authors Guild, told Reuters.
“There needs to be transparency from the authors and the platforms about how these books are created, or you’re going to end up with many low-quality books.”