AI-Generated Sports Biographies Spark Publishing Industry Alarm
Technology 3 days ago
Publishers are sounding alarms over AI-created books impersonating sports autobiographies, with Amazon flooded by suspicious titles. Sky News tracked dozens of AI-generated works, including instant biographies of Women’s Euros stars Chloe Kelly and Michelle Agyemang published within days of their victories. These books featured glaring errors like wrong sports equipment and shared identical template designs, selling for £11 despite being under 50 pages.
Athletes expressed fury over the impersonations, with ex-England captain Steph Houghton discovering a 50-page knockoff of her 300-page memoir. Former Afghanistan footballer Khalida Popal was horrified to find an AI version of her harrowing Taliban survival story. Literary agents warn these synthetic books exploit generative AI to mimic legitimate biographies, confusing consumers and undermining authors’ years of work.
Amazon claims to enforce content guidelines but admits no plans to label AI-generated material. While some fraudulent titles were removed after Sky’s investigation, publishers demand clearer consumer warnings as AI books proliferate. The issue highlights growing tensions between rapid AI content creation and publishing integrity.