Amazon is now requiring authors who sell books through the company’s e-book program to disclose in advance if their work contains any AI-generated material.
A new passage in the company’s direct publishing guidelines states: “We require you to inform us of AI-generated content (text, images, or translations) when you publish a new book or make edits to and republish an existing book through KDP. AI-generated images include cover and interior images and artwork.”
The company does not require authors to disclose AI-assisted content, which it defines as content you created yourself and then “used AI-based tools to edit, refine, error-check, or otherwise improve that content (whether text or images).”
AI-generated content, however, which is defined as “ text, images, or translations created by an AI-based tool” does need to be disclosed, even if you made substantial edits to that content.
As AP reports, the move comes after months of complaints from organizations like the Authors Guild, which have concerns about "AI-generated books flooding the platform and displacing human authors and to protect consumers from unwittingly purchasing AI-generated texts."
While the company is now requiring authors to disclose the use of AI, it is not yet publicly identifying those books in its marketplace. So, while Amazon might know a book has AI-generated elements, a buyer might not. An Amazon representative told The AP that policy might be adjusted in the future.
In a statement on the Authors Guild website, the group says it is “grateful to the Amazon team for taking our concerns into account and enacting this important step toward ensuring transparency and accountability for AI-generated content,” and also notes that it will “continue working to promote similar transparency from other major platforms and publishers.”
