Amazon finds itself embroiled in another controversy surrounding an AI-generated book that closely resembles the work of activist Jennifer Holleman. Holleman’s book, “Forever Twenty-One: Maddison’s Story,” details the harrowing tale of her daughter becoming trapped in the world of human trafficking, a story that quickly gained popularity on Amazon. However, she was shocked to find that her work was seemingly plagiarised on the platform.
The issue came to light when a friend alerted Holleman to the presence of another book available on the e-commerce platform, one that appeared to be an imitation of her own work. This book, bearing an erroneous title and riddled with spelling mistakes, featured a photograph of Holleman’s daughter, Maddison, on its cover, seemingly sourced from social media.
The Imitation Game: unveiling the plagiarised book
The AI-generated book, titled “Life of Maddison Fraser: A Young Girl Life Cut Short,” was initially published on Amazon earlier this month and quickly climbed the best-seller ranks. However, it was on a Wednesday night that a friend of Maddison sent her a screenshot of the Amazon page displaying not only Holleman’s original work but also the imposter.
Describing the content of the plagiarised book, Holleman told Saltwire, “Stuff was in there that made no sense. When I talk about the man in the car being a john, they’re referring to him as having the name John and saying he died in the accident.” The glaring issues with content, including grammatical errors, further fuelled her suspicions.
Maddison died in a car crash eight years ago while with a man who was a john. Holleman had used her journal entries at the time as the foundation for a book, adding in additional information and narratives to expand upon those entries. Her own book was published on December 5th, 2023.
Taking action against Amazon
Holleman, who is from Nova Scotia, contacted Amazon to address the issue and was directed to Kindle Direct Publishing, the platform responsible for producing her book. While the fraudulent book was eventually taken down, Holleman expressed her disappointment that it remained visible alongside her genuine work. She denounced the individual responsible for this act as an “opportunistic leech” seeking to exploit her story.
In a Facebook post, she voiced her frustration, writing, “WHO does this s***???? This was brought to my attention and after further research, found it was actually for sale on Amazon. BEWARE. It’s fake and grossly INACCURATE.” She later expressed gratitude for the support of her friends and followers, confirming that the imposter book had been removed from the platform.
The incident highlights the challenges posed by AI-generated content and the need for scrutiny when it comes to protecting authors’ intellectual property on digital platforms like Amazon.
And it certainly isn’t the first time such an incident has occurred on Amazon. Earlier this year, notable writer Jane Friedman had a number of books published using her name, and BBC journalist Rory Cellan-Jones called an unauthorised biography of him “utter tosh.” After various complaints, Amazon took down the books. The platform said it was attempting to bring in measures to avoid the flow of AI-generated books, as it introduced several policies this year to curb the proliferation.
Read: Amazon halts AI-generated books impersonating author Jane Friedman
Amazon has yet to release an official statement regarding the controversy, but the incident is undeniably disconcerting and will likely intensify writers’ concerns about the potential theft of their work.