Meet Jason N. Martin N. Martin, the author of the exciting and dynamic Amazon bestseller “How to Talk to Anyone: Master Small Talks, Elevate Your Social Skills, Build Genuine Connections (Make Real Friends; Boost Confidence & Charisma)”, which is the 857,233rd most popular book on the Kindle Store as of January 12th, 2024. There are, however, a few obvious problems. In addition to the unnecessary repetition of the middle initial and last name, Mr. N. Martin N. Martin’s official portrait is a GAN-generated face, and (as we’ll see shortly), his sole published work is strangely similar to several books by another Amazon author with a GAN-generated face.

In an interesting twist, Amazon’s recommendation system suggests another author with a GAN-generated face in the “Customers also bought items by” section of Jason N. Martin N. Martin’s author page. Further exploration of the recommendations attached to both of these authors and their published works reveals a set of a dozen Amazon authors with GAN-generated faces and at least one published book. Amazon’s recommendation algorithms reliably link these authors together; whether this is a sign that the twelve author accounts are actually run by the same entity or merely an artifact of similarities in the content of their books is unclear at this point in time.

Eleven of the twelve GAN-faced Amazon authors have biographies; the sole exception is Adam Morphy, author of the October 2023 smash hit “AVSAB Study Guide 2023-2024: Realize your military career dream: Prepare for the exam with practice tests and tips and tricks”, an incoherently written tome with a stock photo of a flag for a cover. Interestingly, none of the eleven biographies reference any prior published work by any of the authors, or indeed any verifiable past accomplishments at all. A few contain very vague stories of family history, but these stories are lacking in any sort of detail which would allow them to be confirmed or debunked.

Between them, these twelve authors have generated a total of 57 books. All of these books were published in either 2022 or 2023, with the first (“The Ultimate Lean and Green Cookbook for Beginners: 1200-Days of Lean and Fueling Hacks Recipes to Successfully Embrace a New Healthy and Carefree Lifestyle” by Allison Lawrence) released in March 2022. These books are all non-fiction and range from cookbooks to self-help guides to various alleged educational materials.

In several cases, two different GAN-faced authors seem to have produced mildly different versions of the same book. For example, the title and sample content of “Water Bath Canning and Preserving Cookbook: From the Garden to the Table. 1200 Days of Easy and Affordable Homemade Recipes to Keep Your Pantry Always Stocked” by Allison Lawrence is eerily similar to that of “Water Bath Canning and Preserving Cookbook for Beginners: 1000 Days Quick & Easy Recipes to Water Bath & Pressure Canning. Safely Preserve Meat, Vegetables, Sauces, Low-Sugar Jams, and much more” by Rosanne McClure. Similarly, “THE CANDLESTICK TRADING BIBLE: Ultimate Way to Candlestick Chart Patterns” by Andrew Burns appears to be more or less the same book as “Trade Bible for Candlesticks: The Essential Course: Harnessing the Power of Japanese Candlesticks” by Warren Markiel, and “How to Talk to Anyone: Master Small Talks, Elevate Your Social Skills, Build Genuine Connections (Make Real Friends; Boost Confidence & Charisma)” by Jason N. Martin N. Martin resembles multiple books by William Howard.

In some cases, the same author appears to have published variations on the same book over and over. The most obvious instance is William Howard, whose works “How to Talk Effectively: A Practical Guide to Speak Your Mind Clearly and Influence People Indirectly (Communication Guru Book 1)”, “How to Master Small Talk: A Practical Guide to Improve Your Conversations and Talk to Anyone About Anything (Communication Guru Book 2)”, and “The Empathic Listener: Unlock the Power of Active Listening to Transform Your Relationships (Communication Guru Book 3)”, all feature much of the same sample content (as does Jason N. Martin N. Martin’s “How to Talk to Anyone: Master Small Talks, Elevate Your Social Skills, Build Genuine Connections”). This suggests the use of automated tools to reword content, either old-school article spinners or more recent techniques based on large language models.

There are other signs that some or all of the text in these books is artificially generated. For instance, “AVSAB Study Guide 2023-2024: Realize your military career dream: Prepare for the exam with practice tests and tips and tricks” by Adam Morphy features lengthy passages that repeat the same metaphors over and over with slightly different wording, but never get around to actually saying anything of substance. Although it’s possible the remainder of this book is more useful, the sample content consists largely of phrases like “Your goals are the melodic tunes in the rhythmic dance of your aspirations” that are unlikely to be of much value when preparing for a multiple choice aptitude test.

Other works, such as “Airbnb Business, Updated Edition: How to Start Your Highly Profitable & Fully Automated Short-Term Rental Business. Proven Methods & Latest Tips to Become a Successful Superhost” by GAN-tastic Amazon author Steven Carlson, are seemingly more on-topic, but still contain a lot of oddly verbose and repetitive sections. Basic factual errors also appear, such as the claim that bed and breakfasts have only existed for the last 50 years. (In reality, the lodging concept presently known as a bed and breakfast has existed throughout recorded history, and the English term “bed and breakfast” has been in use for at least 70 years.)

In addition to the use of GAN-generated faces to represent their alleged authors, most of the books utilize plagiarized or stock images for their cover art. One of the authors, Meryl Coriland, also uses stock images for the content of coloring books and “how to draw” guides. Between the synthetic faces, the use of repetitive and potentially AI-generated text, and art copied from other sources, the 57 books that these authors have published over the last two years may well contain almost no original human-generated content, and Amazon’s algorithms in their current state have the unfortunate effect of worsening the problem by recommending additional inauthentic books or authors once a customer stumbles upon one of them.

Conspirador Norteño, conspirator