Author Attributes Errors in Book to Chatbot Use

Steven Rosenbaum said more than half a dozen quotes in his book The Future of Truth were fabricated or misattributed. The New York Times reported the discrepancies earlier this week. Rosenbaum initially accepted responsibility for the errors and later stated that ChatGPT produced the inaccuracies.

Rosenbaum is the executive director of the Sustainable Media Center. He said he used AI tools as a resource and conversation partner while writing the book. He noted the use of AI tools in the book’s acknowledgements.

Monday a Nobel-winning novelist appeared to acknowledge using AI for story ideas before later stating she had been misunderstood. On Tuesday allegations surfaced that Trinidadian author Jamir Nazir used AI to write the short story The Serpent in the Grove, which won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

By Wednesday two of the other five prize winners faced similar scrutiny. The Commonwealth Foundation first stated that none of the winners had used AI. Yesterday the foundation said it takes the allegations seriously and is reviewing the evidence.

A recent working paper estimated that more than half of new books released on Amazon contain AI-generated text. Rosenbaum said he did not let AI write any parts of his book. He declined to comment on an AI-detection tool that flagged one passage as 100 percent AI-generated.