My title might be a bit hyperbolic, but stuff like this worries me. I love to read and I love reading on a kindle. This has been going on for a while, but it has now reached absurd levels.

  • sab@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    If this indeed breaks Amazon then at least that is one silver lining of AI. It’s a shame indie authors are losing their platform, but they’ll find another.

    • festus
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think these particular books are even generated by large language models - from the examples the content is just meaningless nonsense.

      • sab@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        There’s even a federated alternative, BookWyrm!

        …I guess these days the Fediverse is my hammer of choice, and every problem with the internet is a nail.

        • Jyrdano@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          How does the federation work in this case? Do I have to create a new account there, or can I see their content using my Kbin account?

        • jmp242@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Unfortunately it is extremely sparse vs goodreads. Maybe someday it will catch up, but I really didn’t find it useful right now. Then again I am def a lurker on goodreads so where I read lists and reviews from doesn’t matter that much.

          • Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            I guess what I don’t get is what were people using GoodReads for? Because I’m using BookWyrm to just track what I already wanted to read and use the review system as a way to sum up books for myself.

        • jherazob@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Not everything has an answer yet, for example Discord, there’s alternatives but none on Fedi. Also somebody earlier was mentioning fanfiction sites, there’s problems with all the existing ones and again, no Fedi alternative. However, not everything needs to be federated, look at Wikipedia for example.

          • sab@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            The Discord alternative probably should be end-to-end encrypted, so I guess Matrix or something would be a better alternative than the Fediverse. Or just IRC if it’s public ;) In either case it’s probably a good example of where the Fediverse is not the solution (but decentralizzato might still be).

            Fanfiction I guess could be federated - I don’t know how these services work. Personally I’m waiting for a good federated TripAdvisor/Yelp alternative that can be integrated with OpemStreetMaps.

            Wikipedia is wonderful, and probably shouldn’t be decentralized. Then again, it’s one of the few good things about the contemporary internet (along with archive.org).

          • MarionWheeler@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            Honestly, AO3 is pretty based for what it is, especially when you consider how the two main competitors (FFN and Wattpad) are ad driven with all the problems that entails. Tho come to think of it, now I’m getting worried about FFN getting enshittified…