AI's Newest Victims: Lace-Makers

Lace-makers of the world, unite—against artificial intelligence-produced books that are now marring the centuries-old art. Writing for 404 Media, Samantha Cole reports on how veterans in the lace craft are "raising the alarm on AI grifting," with a plethora of phony books—many of them targeting beginners—emerging on different techniques like tatting and bobbin lace. Members of this "tight-knit community" started getting suspicious months ago and posting online about it as they began to find authors with only one book to their name, "flowery" language that didn't sound like industry lingo, text rife with nonsensical content or misspellings, designs pilfered from well-known lace-makers, and "strange" images on some of the book covers.

Of one of the fake books found on Amazon, a reviewer writes: "This is an AI written book whose parameters were set by someone who doesn't know the difference between embroidery, tatting, and bobbin lace. That is like not knowing the difference between running, swimming, and cycling." Another reviewer notes of a second phony tome: "I don't think this book is completed for a beginner since I am more confused now than before going over it." Cole reached out to Amazon with some of the troublesome listings there, and the company removed all but one. "We aim to provide the best possible shopping, reading, and publishing experience, and we are constantly evaluating developments that impact that experience, which includes the rapid evolution and expansion of generative AI tools," the company said in a statement. More here. (More artificial intelligence stories.)