Experts are worried that books produced by ChatGPT for sale on Amazon, which target beginner foragers, could end up killing someone.

Many mushroom identification and foraging books being sold on Amazon are likely generated by AI with no human authorship. These books could provide dangerous misinformation and potentially lead to deaths if people eat poisonous mushrooms based on the AI’s inaccurate descriptions. Two New York mushroom societies have warned about the risks of AI-generated foraging guides. Experts note that safely identifying wild mushrooms requires careful research and experience that an AI system does not have. Amazon has since removed some books flagged as AI-generated, but more may exist. Detecting AI-generated books and authors can be difficult as the systems can fabricate author bios and images. Relying on multiple credible sources, as well as guidance from local foraging groups, is advised for safely pursuing mushroom foraging.

  •  FarceMultiplier   ( @FarceMultiplier@lemmy.ca ) English
    9•10 months ago

    Since my books are for TTRPGs, selling on DriveThruRPG has been better by far. I’ve made hundreds of dollars from there and under $10 on Amazon. Amazon tricks authors by allowing them to publish there then pushing those authors to pay to advertise their own books…which I did, but made zero difference. I’m also on Barnes and Noble, but made no money at all there.

    However, as an author I’ve used their services to print copies of my books to put in games stores and that’s been very cost effective and made me decent money.