Editor's take: Generative AI models are powerful tools that can be exploited by scammers, criminals, and those looking to fabricate an entire writing career. These models can, in theory, generate an endless stream of seemingly coherent text, and they have already been used to flood platforms that provide digital services to public libraries.
The internet is becoming a wasteland, devoid of human interaction, as bots consume global bandwidth with malicious and worthless traffic. According to those in the ebook lending industry, AI-generated text has already become a major issue for publicly funded libraries. Low-quality "books" are flooding the market, overwhelming both automated filters and human reviewers with an almost impossible challenge.
A recent report by 404 Media highlights that the problem primarily affects OverDrive and Hoopla, the two leading companies that public libraries rely on for ebook management and lending. OverDrive allows libraries to curate their collections, selecting which books to offer, while Hoopla provides unrestricted access to its entire catalog. Although Hoopla-powered libraries can cap book prices, they have no control over which titles become available to their users.
The core issue with Hoopla's model is the rising presence of fake content – – referred to in the publishing industry as "vendor slurry." Even before generative AI became widespread, publishers and libraries were already struggling against an influx of low-quality, often self-published ebooks. For years, individuals have churned out "summaries" of popular books with little to no original content. Now, with tools like ChatGPT, the mass production of meaningless, automated content has reached an entirely new level.
Luca Bartlomiejczyk, a librarian at Edith Wheeler Memorial Library in Monroe, Connecticut, stated that the "gargantuan" number of books available on Hoopla is largely composed of low-quality material with little to no appeal for human readers. "If you're going to say, 'we have 15,000 ebooks on our platform,' and 5,000 of those are low quality, AI generated or stuff that's just put on there without any kind of like oversight or selection criteria being followed, what are you actually offering to us?" Bartlomiejczyk asked.
A growing number of publishers and so-called "authors" specialize in the vendor slurry business. One example is IRB Media, which has hundreds of books on Hoopla – all AI-generated summaries of pre-existing titles. As Bartlomiejczyk explained, a customer searching for a specific book could easily end up with an AI-generated summary instead. Lending such worthless content costs libraries money while delivering a disappointing, AI-powered reading experience.
Two years ago, Library Futures and the Library Freedom Project urged Hoopla and OverDrive to address the issue of low-quality books, particularly those denying the Holocaust or promoting hate against minorities. Hoopla removed the offending titles, explaining that both human and algorithmic reviewers had failed to prevent them from entering its catalog.
Now, librarians like Bartlomiejczyk are calling for greater accountability from digital lending platforms, as AI-driven content degradation is a problem unlikely to disappear anytime soon. No one is advocating for an outright ban on AI-generated books, but such content should be clearly labeled in catalogs so readers know exactly what they are downloading to their e-readers
AI-generated books have overrun public libraries, with no easy solution in sight
