Amazon removes AI-written books about King Charles' cancer after royal backlash
A book about King Charles written by AI and put for sale on Amazon has been lambasted by Buckingham Palace, with claims the royal household is lawyering up.
The book includes false claims about the monarch's cancer diagnosis, it has been reported. It is one of seven books on the online retailer which falsely claim to share revelations about the King. The Palace criticised the sale of what it called "intrusive" and "insensitive", adding its lawyers are closely looking at the issue, the Mail on Sunday reported.
According to the publication, the artificially intelligent written book describes the moment Charles learned he had cancer, saying he felt "fear, anger and despair".
Buckingham Palace has not confirmed what type of cancer the King has and has never mentioned a tumour (Getty Images)It also claims he underwent an operation to remove a tumour and then felt fatigued after going through a period of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The book also claims the King has skin cancer and prostate cancer, and was hospitalised for an "unexplained accident".
Buckingham Palace has not confirmed what type of cancer the King has and has never mentioned a tumour. Prices of the books range from £6.99 for an e-book to £15.99 for a paperback, which is printed and distributed by Amazon
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A Buckingham Palace spokesperson told the Mail on Sunday: "Any such titles speculating about His Majesty's diagnosis and treatment are intrusive, insensitive and filled with inaccuracies. Our legal team will be looking at the issue closely."
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Amazon removed several of the books after being told about them, it was reported. Lord Michael Dobbs, who shared a 75th birthday party with Charles last year, questioned why "this rubbish" was still on sale. He added: "This intrusion on the King's privacy when he is sick and suffering shows just how low some will stoop."
Royal biographer Hugo Vickers described the books as "in extremely bad taste" and suggested that they would be upsetting to the Royal Family. There appears to have been very little gap between the King announcing his diagnosis last week and the books appearing on the website. One book - 'The King's Battle: Charles III and His Fight Against Cancer' - was published on Amazon on February 5, the same day the King's cancer was announced.
Generative text software like ChatGPT can crawl the internet for information and then write books in mere minutes. Although Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing does ask publishers if books were written using AI, the answers given do not seem to be verified. In one passage the book reads: "The physician, a wise old man trusted by generations of royalty, conducted a series of tests. His silence was unsettling. Finally, he looked at Charles and said, 'Your Majesty, I'm afraid I have some grave news.
"The words hung in the air, 'You have been diagnosed with cancer.' The world seemed to stand still." An Amazon spokesperson told the Mail that it had invested significant time and resources into making sure that books published on the website followed its content guidelines, and that AI-generated content which violated content guidelines was not allowed.
An Amazon spokesperson said: "We take this issue extremely seriously. We have removed a number of titles that violated our guidelines and continue to review others to ensure our high standards are maintained. We have content guidelines governing which books can be listed for sale and promptly investigate any book when a concern is raised.
"We invest significant time and resources to ensure our guidelines are followed, and remove books that do not adhere to these guidelines. We are constantly evaluating emerging technologies and are committed to providing the best possible shopping, reading, and publishing experience for authors and customers. While we allow AI-generated content, we don't allow AI-generated content that violates our content guidelines.”
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