Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#21

Post by al_borland » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 11:21 PM UTC

ori_b wrote: post #13

MR4D wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly we didn't think this through back then. It should have been obvious to us that it is easier to create noise than it is to create signal. The idyllic dream of a free internet with long tails would be replaced with a steadily worsening signal to noise ratio. We cheered on when Google supplanted Yahoo! because the computers were better at curating than humans. Man, we clearly sucked at choosing the right path. D…

*looks nervously at the AI revolution*

It seems a lot of people see the issues of AI coming, maybe not all of them, but certainly some. Too bad so many people and blinded by potential profits to care.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#22

Post by al_borland » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 11:26 PM UTC

jtotheh wrote: post #14

whartung wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my library you can check out sewing machines and power tools as well. And CA libraries have access to courses on Coursera.

My local library gives access to O'Reilly Safari. You have to click around a bit more than if you had a full price account but I think it's a great resource.

Mine gives access to the Wall Street Journal. As well as some other papers. It only lasts 3 days, but clicking the link again gets another 3 days.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#23

Post by simonw » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 11:32 PM UTC

"The saddest part about it, though, is that the garbage books don’t actually make that much money either. It’s even possible to lose money generating your low-quality ebook to sell on Kindle for $0.99. The way people make money these days is by teaching students the process of making a garbage ebook. It’s grift and garbage all the way down — and the people who ultimately lose out are the readers and writers who love books."

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#24

Post by silisili » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 11:38 PM UTC

Not just e-books, garbage print too! Link below.

The kid likes brain teasers, so I'll grab a book here and there. The last one I ordered was seemingly AI generated. The wording was off, the answers were either completely incorrect, or theoretically correct but not matching the question or parameters asked. I can't quite remember the last time I became as infuriated at a...book.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CQQPPQS4

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#25

Post by janice1999 » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 11:38 PM UTC

ungreased0675 wrote: post #5

The focus of the article is on charlatans selling courses, but I think Amazon deserves more scrutiny. They enable this entire ecosystem of fake books and fake products. I have to imagine that with the amount of data Amazon collects, they could do a lot more to counter the epidemic of fakes.

Amazon's 'solution' has been to limit self published authors to 3 new books a day. What a joke.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/20/amazon-restric...

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#26

Post by mey » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 11:45 PM UTC

csours wrote: post #2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biYciU1uiUw Linked doco by Dan Olson. Strong recommend.

His other long form videos are also a great combination of research and comedy. Worth your time in my opinion.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#27

Post by well_actulily » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 11:52 PM UTC

mey wrote: post #26

csours wrote: post #2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biYciU1uiUw Linked doco by Dan Olson. Strong recommend.

His other long form videos are also a great combination of research and comedy. Worth your time in my opinion.

Highlights include:

- "In Search of a Flat Earth" (2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTfhYyTuT44

- "Line Goes Up" (2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g

- "The Future is a Dead Mall" (2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiZhdpLXZ8Q

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#28

Post by fyrepuffs » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 11:58 PM UTC

Nobody at all guessed that this would happen.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#29

Post by munk-a » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 12:01 AM UTC

al_borland wrote: post #21

ori_b wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*looks nervously at the AI revolution*

It seems a lot of people see the issues of AI coming, maybe not all of them, but certainly some. Too bad so many people and blinded by potential profits to care.

Unfortunately all the people with money can see nothing but upsides.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#30

Post by VHRanger » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 12:09 AM UTC

ori_b wrote: post #13

MR4D wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly we didn't think this through back then. It should have been obvious to us that it is easier to create noise than it is to create signal. The idyllic dream of a free internet with long tails would be replaced with a steadily worsening signal to noise ratio. We cheered on when Google supplanted Yahoo! because the computers were better at curating than humans. Man, we clearly sucked at choosing the right path. D…

*looks nervously at the AI revolution*

AI content generation is only different in scale to content farms. Not in principle.

All this means is that relying on an algo to filter things for you will become less useful (easy to game). You'll need to rely more on real humans you actually trust.