A big conglomerate [with access to market data on the demand side and tons of book optionality on the supply side] thinking it would make a buck absolutely is an additional filter for quality that doesn’t exist for AI-written self-published books.
Real businesses and real authors also tend to be concerned about getting sued for things like libel or defamation, or just generally having their brand reputations dragged through the mud after releasing mislabeled and subpar products.
It’s definitely an imperfect filter, sure, but then just see my original comment.
Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with these weirdos. It's like they expect to be taken seriously when their worldview is apparently based on absurdist philosophy.
Believing that adult human beings shouldn't be restricted from writing, or reading, anything they damned well pleased is not an "absurdist philosophy".
Snooki was an established celebrity with a brand well before she was published at all; as far as I know her books were pretty much exactly in line with what people buying on the strength of their marketing would expect.
It may be “garbage” from the perspective of people with your or my tastes, but they were almost certainly not garbage from the perspective of the people to whom they were marketed. They weren’t, unlike the algorithmic (and previously, low-effort human written) spam that Amazon’s no-standards publishing and retailing policies effectively promote.
Yeah, we all know that the problems that AI is likely to amplify are already problems. The question is whether or not those problems will get worse.
No matter how imperfect the current world is, one which is worse is 1) always possible and 2) worth preventing.