Study reveals 82% of Amazon’s 2024 herbal books likely written by AI

AI-generated content has infiltrated Amazon’s herbal remedies section at an alarming scale, with a new study finding that 82% of books published in this category between January and September 2024 were likely written by artificial intelligence. This flood of unverified AI content poses serious health risks, as these books often promote questionable remedies and cite controversial herbalists who have made unproven claims about cancer cures.

What you should know: Originality.ai, a company that provides AI detection tools to universities and businesses, analyzed 558 titles in Amazon’s herbal remedies subcategory and discovered widespread use of AI-generated content masquerading as expert advice.

• The study revealed that AI “slop” has completely invaded the platform, with books featuring fabricated authors, fake credentials, and potentially dangerous health information.
• One AI-generated book, “Natural Healing Handbook,” has become a No. 1 bestseller in Amazon’s skincare, aroma therapies, and herbal remedies subcategories despite being written entirely by AI.

Red flags identified: The research uncovered several telltale signs of AI-generated herbalism content that consumers should watch for.

• Liberal use of leaf emojis and nature-themed author names like Rose, Fern, and Clove frequently appeared in AI-written books.
• At least 29 of the apparently AI-generated books referenced controversial herbalists Barbara O’Neill and Alfredo Bowman, who have both promoted unproven cancer cures.
• Authors often have no verifiable online presence beyond their Amazon pages, with fabricated backstories and non-existent businesses.

Why this matters: Medical herbalists warn that AI-generated health advice could lead people dangerously astray when seeking natural remedies.

• “There’s a huge amount of herbal research out there right now that’s absolutely rubbish,” said Sue Sprung, a medical herbalist in Liverpool. “AI won’t know how to sift through all the dross, all the rubbish, that’s of absolutely no consequence. It would lead people astray.”
• This trend mirrors last year’s warning about AI-generated mushroom foraging books that contained potentially lethal advice about distinguishing edible fungi from poisonous varieties.

What they’re saying: Industry leaders are calling for immediate action to address the proliferation of unlabeled AI content on Amazon’s platform.

• “This is a damning revelation of the sheer scope of unlabelled, unverified, unchecked, likely AI content that has completely invaded [Amazon’s] platform,” wrote Michael Fraiman, author of the study.
• Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association, emphasized the urgency: “Any book that is fully AI-written should be labelled as such and AI slop must be removed as a matter of urgency.”

Amazon’s response: The e-commerce giant maintains it has systems in place to detect and remove content that violates its guidelines, whether AI-generated or not.

• “We have content guidelines governing which books can be listed for sale, and we have proactive and reactive methods that help us detect content that violates our guidelines,” Amazon said in a statement.
• The company claims to invest “significant time and resources to ensure our guidelines are followed, and remove books that do not adhere to those guidelines.”