a review and analysis on a weird book and further investigation of an emergent phenomenon on Amazon with a multitude of suspicious books being sold with the word "bible" in the title
Although the entire AI thing mixed with the rest of internet ridiculousness is plowing the way for me to smash all my tech and go back to Real Life with Real People in Real Time. At what point is it "enough is enough"?
Other special interest groups have noticed these 'bible's' starting to appear in online book stores. It seems that all new 'bibles' are junk. There will be other trigger words that will be used to hook uncritical people, cover art will be optimised, as you have found handsome or beautiful portraits in the Bios.
I think checking to see if the publisher has any real books will be a clue as well, these may turn out to be self published by a disposable shell company in the event that they get too much bad press.
One thing is certain, no typesetter or editor has been consulted.
Nursery and Kindergarten are similar words in many languages, a simple translation glitch could have resulted in the crazy subsection. The Eggplant drinking disclosure is probably a result of the same.
Remember AI gives you output it THINKS you WANT to get, it is not too focussed on facts and details though for some reason, perhaps the users are generally uncritical and if an answer satisfies the user the AI thinks that is the kind of output to focus on.
Thanks for this post. It makes sense that there are already and there will be far too many more of these terrible-grammar "books" on the market. I see lots of ads in SM for becoming an "author" and selling books without any prior experience. I would guess the result would often be something similar to the "seed saving bible" you reviewed.
A formula that works for legit authors is to research what is trending on Amazon, and read reviews to find out what the market likes and doesn't like about a particular book or topic. Then the author can write a book with their personal spin or flavor that seeks to capitalize on the strengths and weaknesses already identified.
I am guessing that formula in the hands of someone looking to make a quick buck and without any real interest in or knowledge about a given topic is what produces such drivel as the seed saving bible and others like it. No actual writing or research needed, AI and plagiarism and bad translations can all be combined in the end result.
And because so many "consumers" these days are not great readers they won't care about the quality. Thank god for exceptions like you and others of us who still value quality writing and real wisdom shared through the written sord, as it has been for hundreds of years. The poor quality writing and snake oil salesmen have of course been around just as long, but the mass marketing and reach available these days takes it to a whole new level. Not to mention the increasingly poor education of the masses.
One more thought on AI: As with most technology, AI will be as helpful, creative, constructive and beneficial as the user(s).
The atrocious use of language makes me think this is not AI-generated, unless maybe it's AI programmed in a language other than English. I'm under the impression that AI is very adept at imitating good writing. I think the copy-paste analysis is probably more accurate, and copy-pasted from text written by people whose English is sketchy.
It appears that calling something a "bible" is supposed to give it credibility. And I think you've hit the nail on the head in suspecting that most of us have a tendency to judge a book by its cover or title, and not look deeper. Object lesson.
I thought the author was Benjamin JOHSON, not Johnson - it says so on the cover! I hope you gave the "book" a suitably bad review. I never buy books (or anything else) from Amazon, unless there is absolutely no other way of getting a product I want, but I do go on there to look at the reviews.
Wow... what a mess that book is. Reminds me of the assembly instructions that accompany "Made in China" items, only WORSE and LONGER. I appreciate your giving us the heads-up that this garbage is out there; I'll be on the lookout now!
P.S. I'm now super-intrigued by the Benjamin Johnson alias dude... who is he, really, and does he know what's going on with his photo? Is he even a real person, or did AI cough up his image like a hairball when asked to generate a ruggedly handsome middle-aged semi-sincere guy in a Stetson? 🤔
I notice this about a year ago with fairy poetry books. yep. we gotta write out own now. there will be not many, reliable human made books published for a while.
You are 100% correct in your assessment of what's happening to books Gavin. I return them when they are so obviously shills. It may be, in addition to A.I., actual people scanning in old books whose first language isn't English, the old book they are scanning not being of good quality and then coming up with symbols, instead of letters, non-existent words and no one is capable of Proof Reading. One Book I sent back had all the errors highlighted. I don't know if anyone corrected the publication or just went on selling the book as is. You should send this book back with your highlights and demand your money back. I avoid purchasing anything off Amazon, but some things can only be bought there. When it comes to Gardening, Permaculture, Composting, Seed Saving, Fermenting, food preserving - YOU ARE NOW MY GO TO!
I always look at the 1 star reviews first and see if there's a pattern.
Then I look at the ratio of bad to good in order to make a choice.
There are a lot of older books on alternative treatments that have low page counts, so I don't automatically discount them for that, though it certainly counts as a red flag.
As does the presence of weird, twisty sentences, like you highlighted here.
Yes. I have even seen an ad in a YouTube video embed for an AI that will write an ebook for you. All you have to do is buy the product and from it pick an Amazon book genre and sub niche. Then the AI will write a book for you to publish in that sub niche. I have been testing an AI set up to write online courses for you and it is a lot of gluff sales pitch language with a bit of content.
"Why is kindergarten necessary?” 😂
Although the entire AI thing mixed with the rest of internet ridiculousness is plowing the way for me to smash all my tech and go back to Real Life with Real People in Real Time. At what point is it "enough is enough"?
Other special interest groups have noticed these 'bible's' starting to appear in online book stores. It seems that all new 'bibles' are junk. There will be other trigger words that will be used to hook uncritical people, cover art will be optimised, as you have found handsome or beautiful portraits in the Bios.
I think checking to see if the publisher has any real books will be a clue as well, these may turn out to be self published by a disposable shell company in the event that they get too much bad press.
One thing is certain, no typesetter or editor has been consulted.
Nursery and Kindergarten are similar words in many languages, a simple translation glitch could have resulted in the crazy subsection. The Eggplant drinking disclosure is probably a result of the same.
Remember AI gives you output it THINKS you WANT to get, it is not too focussed on facts and details though for some reason, perhaps the users are generally uncritical and if an answer satisfies the user the AI thinks that is the kind of output to focus on.
Thanks for this post. It makes sense that there are already and there will be far too many more of these terrible-grammar "books" on the market. I see lots of ads in SM for becoming an "author" and selling books without any prior experience. I would guess the result would often be something similar to the "seed saving bible" you reviewed.
A formula that works for legit authors is to research what is trending on Amazon, and read reviews to find out what the market likes and doesn't like about a particular book or topic. Then the author can write a book with their personal spin or flavor that seeks to capitalize on the strengths and weaknesses already identified.
I am guessing that formula in the hands of someone looking to make a quick buck and without any real interest in or knowledge about a given topic is what produces such drivel as the seed saving bible and others like it. No actual writing or research needed, AI and plagiarism and bad translations can all be combined in the end result.
And because so many "consumers" these days are not great readers they won't care about the quality. Thank god for exceptions like you and others of us who still value quality writing and real wisdom shared through the written sord, as it has been for hundreds of years. The poor quality writing and snake oil salesmen have of course been around just as long, but the mass marketing and reach available these days takes it to a whole new level. Not to mention the increasingly poor education of the masses.
One more thought on AI: As with most technology, AI will be as helpful, creative, constructive and beneficial as the user(s).
The atrocious use of language makes me think this is not AI-generated, unless maybe it's AI programmed in a language other than English. I'm under the impression that AI is very adept at imitating good writing. I think the copy-paste analysis is probably more accurate, and copy-pasted from text written by people whose English is sketchy.
It appears that calling something a "bible" is supposed to give it credibility. And I think you've hit the nail on the head in suspecting that most of us have a tendency to judge a book by its cover or title, and not look deeper. Object lesson.
I thought the author was Benjamin JOHSON, not Johnson - it says so on the cover! I hope you gave the "book" a suitably bad review. I never buy books (or anything else) from Amazon, unless there is absolutely no other way of getting a product I want, but I do go on there to look at the reviews.
Wow... what a mess that book is. Reminds me of the assembly instructions that accompany "Made in China" items, only WORSE and LONGER. I appreciate your giving us the heads-up that this garbage is out there; I'll be on the lookout now!
P.S. I'm now super-intrigued by the Benjamin Johnson alias dude... who is he, really, and does he know what's going on with his photo? Is he even a real person, or did AI cough up his image like a hairball when asked to generate a ruggedly handsome middle-aged semi-sincere guy in a Stetson? 🤔
Forager expert Sam Thayer is struggling with this topic right now. He calls chat GPT plagiarism software. He comments on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=100075865725320&name=xhp_nt__fb__action__open_user
I notice this about a year ago with fairy poetry books. yep. we gotta write out own now. there will be not many, reliable human made books published for a while.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=100075865725320&name=xhp_nt__fb__action__open_user
My reference for seed saving info is “Seed to Seed” by Suzanne Ashworth.
With all that blank space it is reminiscent of the Pfizer COVID vaccine inserts!
I'm really glad this isn't April's book review, because it's not April yet. 😉😊😂
You are 100% correct in your assessment of what's happening to books Gavin. I return them when they are so obviously shills. It may be, in addition to A.I., actual people scanning in old books whose first language isn't English, the old book they are scanning not being of good quality and then coming up with symbols, instead of letters, non-existent words and no one is capable of Proof Reading. One Book I sent back had all the errors highlighted. I don't know if anyone corrected the publication or just went on selling the book as is. You should send this book back with your highlights and demand your money back. I avoid purchasing anything off Amazon, but some things can only be bought there. When it comes to Gardening, Permaculture, Composting, Seed Saving, Fermenting, food preserving - YOU ARE NOW MY GO TO!
I always look at the 1 star reviews first and see if there's a pattern.
Then I look at the ratio of bad to good in order to make a choice.
There are a lot of older books on alternative treatments that have low page counts, so I don't automatically discount them for that, though it certainly counts as a red flag.
As does the presence of weird, twisty sentences, like you highlighted here.
What the variety of suspicious titles suggests is that it is a trendy book niche so someone is trying to make money on the popular trend.
Yes. I have even seen an ad in a YouTube video embed for an AI that will write an ebook for you. All you have to do is buy the product and from it pick an Amazon book genre and sub niche. Then the AI will write a book for you to publish in that sub niche. I have been testing an AI set up to write online courses for you and it is a lot of gluff sales pitch language with a bit of content.