Though he had dreamed about it, Brett Schickler had never before considered the possibility of becoming a published novelist. But, after finding out about the ChatGPT artificial intelligence initiative, Schickler believed he had been given a chance.
The prospect of authoring a book, according to Rochester, New York salesman Schickler, “finally appeared feasible.” I believed, “I can accomplish this.”
Schickler produced a 30-page illustrated children’s e-book in a couple of hours using the AI programme, which can produce text blocks from straightforward instructions, and made it available for purchase through Amazon.com’s self-publishing division in January.
After finding a gold coin, Sammy the Squirrel—roughly animated using AI as well—learns from his forest buddies the importance of saving money. He creates an acorn-shaped piggy bank, makes investments in an acorn trading company, and dreams of one day purchasing an acorn mill.
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According to the novel, Sammy becomes the richest squirrel in the forest, the envy of his buddies, and “the woodland starts prospering.”
According to Schickler, who utilised ChatGPT prompts like “create a tale about a dad teaching his son about financial literacy,” “I could see individuals creating a full career out of this.”
Schickler is at the forefront of an initiative examining the potential and constraints of ChatGPT, which launched in November and has caused controversy through Silicon Valley and beyond for its uncanny ability to create cogent blocks of text instantly.
Yet, because of the nature of ChatGPT and the unwillingness of many authors to reveal their use of it, it is incredibly difficult to determine the exact number of e-books that might have been produced by AI.
The development of the software has already alarmed some of the largest names in the IT industry, leading Alphabet and Microsoft to rapidly introduce new AI-infused features in Google and Bing, respectively.
A danger to “Real” Authors?
When aspiring authors and self-help experts eager to make a quick buck turn to ChatGPT to help develop bot-made e-books and sell them through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing division, the staid book industry now appears ready to be upended.
Such debut authors choose to write picture books for kids. There are hundreds of tutorials showing how to build a book in a few hours on YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit. Get-rich-quick scams, nutrition ideas, software coding assistance, and recipes are among the topics covered.
The Authors Guild executive director Mary Rasenberger remarked, “This is something we really need to be concerned about; these books will flood the market and a lot of authors will be out of job.”
She noted that although human ghostwriting has a long history, automation made possible by artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to reduce book authorship to a commodity.
From Conception to Perception in Just Hours
With well over half of sales in the US and, by some estimates, over 80% of the e-book industry, Amazon is by far the biggest seller of both physical and digital books. With the support of its Kindle Direct Publishing service, a cottage industry of independently published authors has emerged, carving out specific markets for those who enjoy erotica and self-help books.
In order to eliminate the difficulty and expense of finding literary agents or publishing houses, Amazon developed Kindle Direct Publishing in 2007 to enable anybody to sell and market a book from the comfort of their couch. In general, Amazon permits authors to rapidly publish through the system without any control, dividing any profits.
The software does not wow everyone. In an email to Reuters, Mark Dawson, who is said to have sold millions of copies of books he self-penned, was quick to label ChatGPT-assisted writings “dull.”
“The recommendation of books to other readers is influenced by merit. A book will swiftly fall to the bottom if it receives poor reviews because of the boring writing.”