Detection Firm Finds 82% of Herbal Remedy Books on Amazon 'Likely Written' By AI (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0179857146
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/10/23/1440241/detection-firm-finds-82-of-herbal-remedy-books-on-amazon-likely-written-by-ai
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/22/detection-firm-finds-82-of-herbal-remedy-books-on-amazon-likely-written-by-ai
> With gingko "memory-boost tinctures," fennel "tummy-soothing syrups" and "citrus-immune gummies," AI [1]"slop" has come for herbalism , a study published by a leading AI-detection company has found. Originality.ai, which offers its tools to universities and businesses, says it scanned 558 titles published in Amazon's herbal remedies subcategory between January and September this year, and found 82% of the books "were likely written" by AI.
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> "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. "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."
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/22/detection-firm-finds-82-of-herbal-remedy-books-on-amazon-likely-written-by-ai
So.... (Score:2)
It's complete bullshit and potentially harmful either way.
Re: (Score:3)
We always talk about oil companies, tech companies, medical insurance and military contractors as these big all powerful lobbyist forces but skirting by public blame blame is the US supplements industry which has to this day manged to stay almost criminally unregulated.
It's also (along with local car dealerships) a financial pillar of the Republican political machine. They've long made it a strategy to focus on conservative alternative media (Alex Jones, Rogan and such are always pushing some new brain pil
How can they tell (Score:5, Interesting)
Between the normal snake oil rubbish that has invaded herbalism and the AI generated?
Re: (Score:2)
I think it would be the same as anything else. If your new age book of woo contains a lot of em dashes, it was something generated by an AI. What will people do when they find out that an AI has been writing their horoscopes?
Re: (Score:2)
> Between the normal snake oil rubbish that has invaded herbalism and the AI generated?
That's an obvious consequence of the Big Pharma war on anything that doesn't make them a profit. The regulations they buy drive legitimate herbalism underground. The US doesn't recognize studies from other countries, using bullshit excuses about how they don't meet our standards to justify this, when those standards are parts of laws purchased by Pharma Cos in order to keep down competition.
Human generated nonsense is replaced... (Score:5, Insightful)
...by AI written nonsense.
Nothing of value was lost.
Not just "herbal remedy" books (Score:2)
I'd rather like to see a list of genres which haven't been entered by AI slop yet. Like, look for camera handbooks. The worst examples even show AI-generated fantasy shapes for the camera they're pretending to describe...
Maybe a dumb question... (Score:2)
... but how do they come to the conclusion, what methods and tools do they do? I guess part of me is jaded by the continual debates over something being AI or not on other platforms often fueled by "AI checkers" whose accuracy range from dubious to dogshit at best.
Re: (Score:2)
There's a lot of details in TFA. In short, the introduction of TFA shows that some of those books are written by non-existent authors, who founded non-existent societies, include backpage editorial reviews from non-existent journalists in non-existent journals. They also include the typical odd sentences, repeated sentences. [1]https://originality.ai/blog/li... [originality.ai]
[1] https://originality.ai/blog/likely-ai-herbal-remedies-books-study
Same old, same old (Score:2)
> "There's a huge amount of herbal research out there right now that's absolutely rubbish," said Sue Sprung, a medical herbalist in Liverpool.
And now some of it is AI.
More a testament to the SPEED of AI. (Score:2)
> "This is a damning revelation of the sheer scope of unlabelled, unverified, unchecked, likely AI content that has completely invaded [Amazon's] platform,"
I'd say this should be FAR more an eye-opening revelation as to the unrelenting speed at which AI can infect anything.
Herbal Remedy books are how old? And AI is how young?
Yeah. THAT fast. 82% is absolutely fucking insane given the many centuries it took humans to write presumably tens of thousands of tombs globally on the topic.
Re: (Score:2)
82% is a lot. I assume there was some cherry picking around publication dates (like 'published in last 12 months') that isn't in the summary for that to be true. If I was going to blast out AI generated books to make a quick buck, alternative medicine is one of the areas I'd probably target.
Re: (Score:2)
Just RTFA and yes, they only looked at a small, recent window so the high number makes more sense:
> Originality.ai, which offers its tools to universities and businesses, says it scanned 558 titles published in Amazon’s herbal remedies subcategory between January and September this year, and found 82% of the books “were likely written” by AI.
AI version maybe safer? (Score:2)
AI is going to have some safety mechanisms in generation, there's a chance the AI written herbal remedies are actually safer than a lot of what human authors of the genre are saying
Re: (Score:2)
> AI is going to have some safety mechanisms in generation, there's a chance the AI written herbal remedies are actually safer than a lot of what human authors of the genre are saying
There are plenty of remedies proven safe, effective, and beneficial that have been absolutely demonized by Greed N. Corruption. There are also many reasons to purposely infect a population if said government over the population benefits greatly from not only the Medical Industrial Complex, but also population control that death by design (policy), creates.
It will be interesting to see where AI lands on the side of morality, health, and profit. We will quickly see who's pulling the AI strings when we start
For inquiring minds (Score:1)
Best I can tell there's already a classic book in this space: Earl Mindell's Herb Bible. Its a neat coffee table book. You can just read parts at a time and it is enjoyable. Super fun to look out for the herbs that specifically warn they're unsafe during pregnancy ;-) Made me wonder just how effective a cocktail of these would be to induce a miscarriage.
May not be AI, just really stupid humans. (Score:2)
Would not surprise me if it were really easy to tell the difference between AI slop and excellently researched / well written books.
But it could also be really hard to tell the difference between AI slop and the poorly written ramblings of idiots.
Double blind validation? (Score:2)
An AI-detection company makes headlines for declaring that a bunch of books have been outed by their amazing AI-detection technology. It's not that hard to believe. However, how much of that claim is valid? How many of the 82% AI-tagged books were incorrectly identified, or is the claim that their detection is 100% correct? AI-detection for school assignments is often incorrect. My kids have had their personally written paragraphs flagged by AI, which, of course, prompts me to make fun of them.
Then aga
You think humans are better? (Score:2)
They appear at dawn, wearing linen and the scent of boiling nettles.
With solemn faces, they explain that science is fine, but their aunt once cured a migraine by humming at rosemary.
They call coffee “bean infusion” and water “structured.”
Every sentence begins with “as an empath,” and ends with “raise your vibration.”
Their kitchens look like witch covens sponsored by Whole Foods.
They speak of detoxing — as if their intestines were a 1980s swimming pool.
Ha
This is exactly why I stick to (Score:5, Funny)
Good old colloidal silver and horse dewormer. I just make a milkshake out of it with some raw milk and bleach.
Re: (Score:3)
So long as Trump and his minions have the same done to them, deal. Fauci has given decades of his life to help people so if he has to be sacrificed to get rid of a larger evil, so be it.
Re: (Score:2)
I followed through all the drivel to find the actual quote.
“If indeed the latter is true, then AIDS takes on an entirely new dimension,” it continued. “If we add to this possibility that nonsexual, non-blood-borne transmission is possible, the scope of the syndrome may be enormous.” Although the article reiterated the need to “be cautious” in accepting these findings as they awaited more evidence, the discovery “should at least alert us to the possibility that we ar
Re: This is exactly why I stick to (Score:2)
Oh no! Fauci was following standard precautionary principles in the face of an unknown infectious pathogen? The horror! The The scandal!
Re: (Score:3)
They do actually when you have the most effective de-wormer we've ever invented.
That doesn't mean it does jack shit against a respiratory viral infection or that it should be used as a dishonest political weapon because a certain group of craven political actors found it advantageous to disparage actually effective treatments to further their cultural battles.
Re: (Score:1)
It's interesting how people get TDS and all science goes out the window. Ivermectin is a great example; it's cheap, safe, and effective for a lot of uses. The discovery won a Nobel Prize. I know a doctor here in town that is using it to treat autoimmune symptoms to good effect.
And yet, some people have a very narrow-minded, talking points memo version of reality if Trump is even remotely involved. It's sad.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes ivermectin is fantastic for treating parasites. We've established that. However even the manufacturer says it's worthless against covid.
Re: (Score:2)
> Sorry your King Fauci got deposed, I know its hard to deal with the lack of closure. We should have hanged him..
Fauci started working for the Reagan administration. He's one of the most experienced and knowledgeable people there is when it comes to virology and outbreaks. Can you recommend an equal (or better) qualified non woke replacement?