“AI, KDP AI… what?”
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know AI has been all the buzz – influencing various fields, and now it’s making a splash in the publishing world. If you’ve been wondering how KDP AI policies might affect you as a self-published author, read this article attentively.
Amazon has updated its policies, and it’s kind of a big deal. In this article, we’ll go over, how AI-generated content is defined, and what the consequences are for you as an author.
Now, if you’re scratching your head wondering what the heck is AI-generated or AI-assisted content, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Let's break it down:
KDP AI Info: AI-Generated Content
Amazon defines it as “Content such as text, images, or translations created by an Artificial Intelligence-based tool.”
So, AI-generated content is essentially the kind of content that is, well, generated almost entirely by artificial intelligence. Picture someone just adding a prompt to ChatGPT like “write me a sci-fi story about a young woman up against evil technology following the typical hero’s journey”. Boom, AI Generated Content.
KDP AI Info: AI-Assisted Content
On the other hand, AI-assisted means you, a human (I assume), created the content but used AI tools to polish, refine, or even just brainstorm ideas. Basically, it's you in the driver's seat, with AI as your sidekick. It’s kind of like having a close friend sitting with you, looking over your work and brainstorming ideas.
Going back to our other example, instead of asking ChatGPT to write it out, you ask it to help you outline the book, and come up with character traits, names, and so on, but it’s still you writing the book. In my experience, if authors do use AI, this is how they most commonly use it. Another example of this is Grammarly. Like many other websites, they’ve implemented some AI-assisted tools to make their editing better.
Amazon KDP AI acknowledgements
So now, when we upload our books to Amazon, they’re asking us authors to distinguish between AI-generated content and nothing. You’ve got to tick one of the boxes ranging from “None of it is AI-generated” to “The whole shebang is a masterpiece by an AI.” So, what if it’s AI-assisted, would you select
Yes?
No, as that’s not the proper definition, and it’s still your work.
So, why are they doing this?
Why KDP AI is becoming an issue?
Well, AI Generated content has become almost impossible to detect. Just recently, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT stated that even AI writing detectors don’t work for AI content.
Before we dive into Amazon's potential plans, I've got an essential resource to share with you — our exclusive Pre-Publishing and Marketing Checklist, absolutely free. This checklist is crafted to guide you in unleashing the full potential of your book on Amazon. Grab it by clicking on the image below:
Now, what’s really shaking people is that no one knows what Amazon plans to do with this info they're gathering. They’ve said, “we are actively monitoring the rapid evolution of generative AI and its impact on reading, writing, and publishing,” but they haven’t revealed their hand on their master plan yet.
Are they planning to create an exclusive club for AI-generated bestsellers? Or maybe they’re forming an elite robot author task force? But jokes aside, it seems like Amazon is keeping its cards close to its chest, with a promise to keep the interests of authors, publishers, and readers a priority.
What I personally think will happen regarding KDP AI is this:
Amazon will publicly identify and make it clear which books are AI books and which ones are not. This will allow the potential reader to decide for him or herself if they want to pay and read that book. The big challenge though will be Amazon trusting people to correctly identify if it’s generated or not. I’m sure in the future, when or if AI detectors get better, Amazon will start banning accounts that don’t correctly mark their work as such. But for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.
KDP AI: Conclusion
All in all, whether you welcome our new robot overlords or not, it’s essential to stay informed. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates, because this is a space that’s changing faster and faster by the week.
I’m curious to know, comment down below, what are your thoughts on KDP AI or AI’s role in general regarding publishing, and where do you think it’ll be in 1, 5 or 10 years?
Till next time, keep crafting those mesmerizing tales.
