AI-Generated Slop Is Already In Your Public Library.

The world of publishing has gradually become more and more filled with literary works, making it quite complex to achieve a certain level of fame for most books - the number of novels and essays on offer is so great that it exceeds demand. Since artificial intelligence has made its way into the field in question, this gap has worsened markedly - adding, moreover, a certain possibility of misinformation, given the fragile veracity of artificially generated information.

The American library system is suffering the consequences of this rapid spread. Public libraries usually rely on external companies to manage and lend out ebooks, such as Hoopla and OverDrive (known for its own app, called ‘Libby’) - the former provides a complete catalogue to the library, while the latter allows the library to choose the titles to be included in the public offering.

Considering Hoopla's archive and the large number of items within it, libraries usually opt for the full catalogue in order to obtain a better ratio between quantity and price - this means, however, that it is not possible to choose exact books, forcing librarians to check each individual title to discern its human or artificial nature.