Fake AI biographies of Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney removed from Amazon
Amazon has removed fake AI biographies of Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney and Humza Yousaf after being called out by readers.
The online retail giant is pulling a book which wrongly claims the First Minister was born in America to a Polish mother and another which incorrectly says Yousaf grew up in poverty to a father called Mohammed.
One biography of Sturgeon alleged her family 'placed a high cost on education, difficulty painting and public service' and that her 'mom' became a 'nearby press flesher'.
There are concerns that AI misinformation could have an influence on next year's Holyrood election.
Sam Stockwell, from the Alan Turing Institute in London, told The Times: 'As generative AI becomes more accessible, many users can now automate professionalised descriptions and even full-length books of politicians using the immense amount of data these tools scrape from the internet on such individuals.
'Since text also lacks more obvious cues compared to videos or images which allow users to determine whether it is authentic or generated by AI, there is a risk that these AI-generated biographies could have a more persuasive effect on those who read them.'
He added: 'With Scottish elections looming next year, one of the main concerns here is that threat actors [people or entities causing harm via the internet] could seek to undermine the reputation of political candidates by uploading fake biographies which include harmful, fabricated claims.
'Perhaps most worryingly, an absence of any labels or information indicating that these texts are AI -generated makes it more challenging for users to be aware of when they may be consuming such content.'
The Swinney book was published shortly after he took office last year.
It was called 'Scotland's Education Architect' and claimed he 'was not actually born in Scotland like many people may think'.
It said he was from Ohio and that his mother was a Polish school dinner lady called Kazimiera.
It also claimed he moved to Dunfermline as a child, battled poverty and then became a teacher.
None of this is true. Swinney is from Edinburgh, his mother was called Agnes and he has never been a teacher.
A spokesperson for Amazon said: 'We have content guidelines governing which books can be listed for sale, and we have pro-active and reactive methods that help us detect content that violates our guidelines, whether AI -generated or not.
'We invest significant time and resources to ensure our guidelines are followed and remove books that do not adhere to those guidelines.'
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