Study Shows AI Books Squeeze Human Authors' Market

Anthropic bought millions of used books, scanned them, and destroyed the originals to train AI models. This sparked debate, though a US judge ruled it as fair use. Now, the impact of AI-generated content on markets is the new focus.

Researchers looked at over 14,000 ebooks on Amazon from 2023 to 2026. They found many contained AI-generated text. The number of books with sales grew 19 times, but reader spending only rose 9 times. So, each book earns less on average. Books without AI text also lost market share.

Ed Newton-Rex from Fairly Trained said AI companies' claim that training doesn't hurt creators' income is no longer valid. AI can produce thousands of books cheaply, making it hard for human authors. Yet, AI content relies on human original works.