AI-Generated Slop Is Already In Your Public Library 20
An anonymous reader writes: Low quality books that appear to be AI generated are making their way into public libraries via their digital catalogs, forcing librarians who are already understaffed to either sort through a functionally infinite number of books to determine what is written by humans and what is generated by AI, or to spend taxpayer dollars to provide patrons with information they don't realize is AI-generated.
Public libraries primarily use two companies to manage and lend ebooks: Hoopla and OverDrive, the latter of which people may know from its borrowing app, Libby. Both companies have a variety of payment options for libraries, but generally libraries get access to the companies' catalog of books and pay for customers to be able to borrow that book, with different books having different licenses and prices. A key difference is that with OverDrive, librarians can pick and choose which books in OverDrive's catalog they want to give their customers the option of borrowing. With Hoopla, librarians have to opt into Hoopla's entire catalog, then pay for whatever their customers choose to borrow from that catalog. The only way librarians can limit what Hoopla books their customers can borrow is by setting a limit on the price of books. For example, a library can use Hoopla but make it so their customers can only borrow books that cost the library $5 per use.
On one hand, Hoopla's gigantic catalog, which includes ebooks, audio books, and movies, is a selling point because it gives librarians access to more for cheaper price. On the other hand, making librarians buy into the entire catalog means that a customer looking for a book about how to diet for a healthier liver might end up borrowing Fatty Liver Diet Cookbook: 2000 Days of Simple and Flavorful Recipes for a Revitalized Liver. The book was authored by Magda Tangy, who has no online footprint, and who has an AI-generated profile picture on Amazon, where her books are also for sale. Note the earring that is only on one ear and seems slightly deformed. A spokesperson for deepfake detection company Reality Defender said that according to their platform, the headshot is 85 percent likely to be AI-generated. [...] It is impossible to say exactly how many AI-generated books are included in Hoopla's catalog, but books that appeared to be AI-generated were not hard to find for most of the search terms I tried on the platform. "This type of low quality, AI generated content, is what we at 404 Media and others have come to call AI slop," writes Emanuel Maiberg. "Librarians, whose job it is in part to curate what books their community can access, have been dealing with similar problems in the publishing industry for years, and have a different name for it: vendor slurry."
"None of the librarians I talked to suggested the AI-generated content needed to be banned from Hoopla and libraries only because it is AI-generated. It might have its place, but it needs to be clearly labeled, and more importantly, provide borrowers with quality information."
Sarah Lamdan, deputy director of the American Library Association, told 404 Media: "Platforms like Hoopla should offer libraries the option to select or omit materials, including AI materials, in their collections. AI books should be well-identified in library catalogs, so it is clear to readers that the books were not written by human authors. If library visitors choose to read AI eBooks, they should do so with the knowledge that the books are AI-generated."
Public libraries primarily use two companies to manage and lend ebooks: Hoopla and OverDrive, the latter of which people may know from its borrowing app, Libby. Both companies have a variety of payment options for libraries, but generally libraries get access to the companies' catalog of books and pay for customers to be able to borrow that book, with different books having different licenses and prices. A key difference is that with OverDrive, librarians can pick and choose which books in OverDrive's catalog they want to give their customers the option of borrowing. With Hoopla, librarians have to opt into Hoopla's entire catalog, then pay for whatever their customers choose to borrow from that catalog. The only way librarians can limit what Hoopla books their customers can borrow is by setting a limit on the price of books. For example, a library can use Hoopla but make it so their customers can only borrow books that cost the library $5 per use.
On one hand, Hoopla's gigantic catalog, which includes ebooks, audio books, and movies, is a selling point because it gives librarians access to more for cheaper price. On the other hand, making librarians buy into the entire catalog means that a customer looking for a book about how to diet for a healthier liver might end up borrowing Fatty Liver Diet Cookbook: 2000 Days of Simple and Flavorful Recipes for a Revitalized Liver. The book was authored by Magda Tangy, who has no online footprint, and who has an AI-generated profile picture on Amazon, where her books are also for sale. Note the earring that is only on one ear and seems slightly deformed. A spokesperson for deepfake detection company Reality Defender said that according to their platform, the headshot is 85 percent likely to be AI-generated. [...] It is impossible to say exactly how many AI-generated books are included in Hoopla's catalog, but books that appeared to be AI-generated were not hard to find for most of the search terms I tried on the platform. "This type of low quality, AI generated content, is what we at 404 Media and others have come to call AI slop," writes Emanuel Maiberg. "Librarians, whose job it is in part to curate what books their community can access, have been dealing with similar problems in the publishing industry for years, and have a different name for it: vendor slurry."
"None of the librarians I talked to suggested the AI-generated content needed to be banned from Hoopla and libraries only because it is AI-generated. It might have its place, but it needs to be clearly labeled, and more importantly, provide borrowers with quality information."
Sarah Lamdan, deputy director of the American Library Association, told 404 Media: "Platforms like Hoopla should offer libraries the option to select or omit materials, including AI materials, in their collections. AI books should be well-identified in library catalogs, so it is clear to readers that the books were not written by human authors. If library visitors choose to read AI eBooks, they should do so with the knowledge that the books are AI-generated."
Re: (Score:1)
That's the pubic libary.
If I go to the library, it's for dead tree books (Score:2)
Somehow I doubt that AI generated drivel in dead tree form, with ISBNs and all, is ever going to be revenue-positive.
Re: (Score:2)
Public libraries are the solution to that revenue-positive problem.
Re: I work adjacant to the book industry (Score:3)
I would rather the library label all the Hoopla offerings, for example, where they are now sure if it is human-generated, as âoeThis book was likely generated by an AIâ before I wasted time downloading a book I thought was real. Hoopla and others should be on the hook to refund fees when the truth is discovered.
Re: I work adjacant to the book industry (Score:2)
Should be NOT sure.
Re: I work adjacant to the book industry (Score:4, Interesting)
I would rather the library label all the Hoopla offerings, for example, where they are now sure if it is human-generated, as âoeThis book was likely generated by an AIâ before I wasted time downloading a book I thought was real. Hoopla and others should be on the hook to refund fees when the truth is discovered.
If they started having that label, I could pretty much guarantee it would be slapped on every indie and self-published book available regardless of the quality of the final edit or the text itself. Some might think that's a good thing, but as a writer/author myself, I don't much enjoy being told my choice is either bend over for the big boys or be labeled AI trash. I write my trash authentically, damn it!
clearly AI (Score:2)
Bad writing (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Bad writing (Score:3)
Nothing new under the sun. Pulp magazines played that role a century ago, decades before the rise of e-books.
Re: (Score:3)
A few years ago "bespoke books" were the latest get-rich-quick scam. Find a trending topic, pay someone some ridiculously low amount to write a book about it, and then sell said book on Amazon. Of course the books were extremely low quality. Most of the authors just took a template, and paraphrased the Wikipedia article with a lot of padding.
It's not all that new, I remember some computer magazines having articles like that back in the 90s, probably earlier. It's just more efficient with AI now, the volume
Re: (Score:1)
Every once in a while a salesperson convinces a librarian to buy something dumb that nobody wants, that does happen sometimes. I remember one incident when a sal
Porn... (Score:2)
Wait... $5? (Score:2)
So the library is paying $5 for me to get a free e-book? EACH TIME?!
How can they afford to waste that kind of money? A paper book at $100 can be used for decades by 100s of people.
It's 2025 (Score:4, Interesting)
I keep being told that its 2025 and A B or C is old and outdated so I shouldn’t be using it.
Now it’s my turn.
It's 2025, please close these ancient useless things down!
Thankyou!
Before you post, I'm being sarcastic. I love libraries. I just find it bloody odd that I keep getting told that line while people still read dead trees with marks on them in purpose built buildings.
It's just as crazy as riding a horse in 2025, or even breeding and stabling them! Yet, they still do. And they tell think they can tell me to stop listening to CD's and recording things.
What about human slop (Score:2)