Three of Britains biggest booksellers have removed fake showbiz memoirs written by artificial intelligence bots after being alerted to the scam by The Mail on Sunday.
The bogus biographies, which were being sold online by Amazon, Waterstones and Foyles, were listed alongside legitimate books despite being littered with bizarre claims and outright lies about a wide range of public figures.
They are part of a cynical mass industry, in which software plunders genuine biographies and unreliable internet content to create poorly-written summaries designed to cash in on hoodwinked readers. Many feature AI-generated images on the cover, which often bear little resemblance to the intended celebrity subject.
Earlier this year, the MoS revealed how fake biographies purporting to contain revelations about the Kings cancer treatment were being sold by Amazon, despite being generated by computer. Other slim paperbacks appeared containing lurid claims about the Princess of Wales and the late Princess Diana.
Two of the latest targets are Mail columnist Andrew Pierce and comedian and author Jenny Eclair, who both found fake biographies for sale by an author called Yahia Belkherouf.
A fake biography about Keir Starmer with an unconvincing image of the Prime Minister on the front cover
A cartoon version of former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson sits on the front cover of his biography seemingly produced by Legendary Press
Waterstones (eft) and Foyles (right) were listed bogus biographies alongside legitimate books despite being littered with bizarre claims and outright lies about a wide range of public figures
On discovering the rival memoir for sale last week, days ahead of the publication of her own book, an outraged Ms Eclair urged fans: Please dont buy this, its an AI scam. Jeeese!
And Mr Pierce says the books about him were garbage and littered with errors.
After being alerted to the AI-generated content, Waterstones, which also owns Foyles, last night deleted all books by one AI author on its websites. Amazon also removed the specific titles about Andrew Pierce and Jenny Eclair.
Bot authors have become more prolific in recent months. While some fake titles suddenly appear just weeks before a real memoir is due to be published others, sinisterly, emerge within hours of a celebritys death.
Comedians Rob Beckett, Bob Mortimer and Romesh Ranganathan have all recently found themselves victims of the scam.
Former BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Joness memoir Ruskin Park, was also plundered by AI, and Amazons algorithm even emailed him to suggest he buy the fake title. He said he was mystified by the business model as it was hard enough to get people to buy real memoirs.
One of the most active fake authors is Yahia Belkherouf, who has no public profile but has seemingly published 147 titles on Amazon this year on subjects as diverse as former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, Elizabeth Is spymaster Robert Cecil and Melania Trump.
Amazon permits AI-generated books unless they create a poor user experience or infringe its guidelines. Anyone can self-publish on its website, although a rule introduced in July means authors or publishers taking this route may have to verify their identity.
One of the most active fake authors is Yahia Belkherouf, who has no public profile but has seemingly published 147 titles on Amazon this year on subjects such as former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell (pictured)
Another biography on sale centres around the life of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner
Another memoir is about Dame Judi Dench
Hillary Clinton is yet another target of an AI generated biography
Tennis player Sue Barker has had an AI generate a book about her which is called Sue Barker: A Life Beyond the Baseline
Meanwhile, such titles were able to be sold by Waterstones and Foyles because their websites are populated via an automated feed.
Confirming it had removed all Belkheroufs books, Waterstones said: We go to great lengths to exclude AI-generated titles. Inevitably, some escape this scrutiny and these are removed as soon as they are noticed.
Amazon said it had a robust set of methods that help us proactively detect content that violates our guidelines and books which did not adhere were removed.
That cover picture of me doesnt even look like a distant relative
by Jenny Eclair
Having spent over 40 years in showbusiness being mistaken for actress Su Pollard, I am used to people being confused about who I am and what Ive done (clue: not Hi-de-Hi!).
Next month, my autobiography Jokes, Jokes, Jokes, typed by my own chubby hands, will be published. Huzzah.
Only someone has beaten me to it. On July 7, Jenny Eclair: The Biography, written by someone called Yahia Belkherouf, became available on Amazon. There is a photograph of me on the front cover looking like a cross between a Stepford Wife and someone whos been to the same cosmetic surgeon as Nicole Kidman.
Fake me is insanely well-groomed, with a perfectly coiffed silver barnet, black narrow-framed glasses, a very taught jawline and suspiciously gum-coloured teeth.
She looks like the kind of woman youd see on an advert for a fancy cruise: sixty-something but trim, a slimline, white-trouser type who would stand on the deck with a similarly well-preserved vintage gent, smiling and pointing at the sunset. She is so definitely not me that it would be hilarious if it wasnt so grimly sinister.
On discovering the rival memoir for sale last week, days ahead of the publication of her own book, an outraged Jenny Eclair (pictured) urged fans: Please dont buy this, its an AI scam
The book, by Yania Belkherouf, is listed for £12.48 on Amazon and has a one-star rating. Ms Eclair vented about the book on her Instagram
The paperback, retailing on Amazon for £12.48, insists that my life is a tapestry woven with wit, resilience and a touch of the unexpected – which sounds to me like Roald Dahl has been making a cushion cover.
In the blurb for this bonkers work of phoney fiction they have managed to nick a few facts from my Wikipedia page, so that my date and place of birth are both correct, but the rest is vague and reads like it has been badly translated from another language.
So far, there is a single one star review which, even though the book has nothing to do with me, made me blush. Liz T. says: I was bought this as a gift. Its utter rubbish. The cover isnt even a photo of Jenny Eclair. The book is very, very repetitive. Was it written by AI? Or someone doing their GCSEs? Seems to have used Wikipedia for research as its poorly researched. Utter rubbish.
Poor Liz. Having been alerted to this bogus biog, I very quickly put a disclaimer up on X, formerly Twitter, complete with a photo of the fraudulent front cover.
Within minutes, the one-star Amazon reviewer Liz T. got in touch to say that her well-meaning (but not an Eclair fan) husband had bought it by mistake.
When I was first made aware of this scam, I felt slightly sick, though I was cheered by a message from TVs Sewing Bees Paddy Grant, who reassured me: Youre no one if you dont have one of these weird fakey AI biographies. His version apparently took 15 minutes to read, according to one disgruntled reviewer.
Other biographies written by the same author include Peter Kay, Kylie Minogue, Gillian Anderson and, most hilariously, Bob Mortimer, whose cover photo looks like some random bloke from a really bad Bob Mortimer police ID line-up.
An AI generated Kylie Minogue sits on the front cover of a botched biography
A memoir written for TV presenter Lorraine Kelly. It is titled: A journey of grace and grit
An AI generated biography about comedian and author Bob Mortimer whose cover photo looks like some random bloke from a really bad Bob Mortimer police ID line-up
So at least were all in this together and theres nothing any of us, or our publishers, can do because Amazon allows for independently published books to be sold freely on its site.
So, buyer beware – if the photo on the front cover doesnt even look like a distant relative of the supposed celebrity, steer clear.
As for the horrified Liz T., whose husband wasted £12.48 on a bot biog, Ive arranged for a genuine copy of my autobiography to be sent, just as soon as theyre available (October 3, by the way).
Utter tosh with a host of awful errors
by Andrew Pierce
As a journalist of more than 40 years, I was fully expecting some hostile reviews of my first book.
There were a few, of course, but happily outweighed by positive ones. But I never anticipated it would spawn a bogus biography cashing in on the success of Finding Margaret, my story as an adopted child of the emotional search for my birth mother.
Shockingly, the AI-generated book, crassly titled Andrew Pierce Biography: How He Finally Found His Birth Mother, Margaret After Four Decades, written – or not as the case may be – by someone given the name John Justin is littered with errors from the very first line of the badly written 69 pages.
As an avid reader of biographies about people from actor David Niven to Dame Joan Collins, I love the way they are full of amusing, charming and waspish anecdotes from named friends, relations, and lovers past and present.
But not one person is quoted on or off the record in Andrew Pierce: Biography – or two companion books, created by computer, which I have just discovered: Andrew Pierce: The Biography by AP Press (£11 from Amazon) and From News To Documents: The Andrew Pierce Biography by Brittany Hicks (£9.41 from Amazon).
How I laughed when I read about my upbringing in Bristol would have had an impact on the formation of my world view. Unlikely. I was in Bristol for only five weeks as a baby before being taken to an orphanage 50 miles away in Cheltenham.
Andrew Pierce says the books about him were garbage and littered with errors
A fake book called Andrew Pierce Biography: How He Finally Found His Birth Mother, Margaret After Four Decades. The real Mr Pierce described the book as crassly titled
Another AI generated memoir about Mail columnist Andrew Pierce titled Andrew Pierce: Unyielding Conviction The Journey of Andrew Pierce
| Fake biography | The truth |
|---|---|
| Born: March 19, 1961 | Born: February 10, 1961 |
| Adopted as a baby | Adopted aged three |
| Educated at Bristol’s St Brendan’s sixth-form college | Went to St Joseph’s (Catholic) Comprehensive, Swindon |
| Studied English literature at Warwick University | Never attended university |
| Decided on a career in journalism while at university | Ambition to be a journalist began when aged 14 |
| Began as trainee reporter on the Bristol Evening Post | Never worked for the Bristol Evening Post |
| First notable journalistic job, Western Daily Press | Never worked for the Western Daily Press |
| Political editor of The Times | Parliamentary correspondent and assistant editor |
| Pundit every weekday on ITV’s Good Morning Britain | Only appears Monday to Wednesday |
| Co-host of LBC radio show with Kevin Maguire | Yes, for six months in 2017 – but then sacked |
Any readers of this AI tosh would also be told that I gained my analytical skills and perspective on societal issues while studying English Literature at Warwick University. If only. I never went to university and have been to Warwick only once, when shadowing Prince Andrew years ago, while working as a royal correspondent.
For a long time, I feared that AI would mean ageing journalists such as myself being phased out by automatons. But, reassuringly, these books are bot-manufactured recycled garbage.
Thankfully, not all human jobs are yet threatened by AI. I was wrong. If only I had learnt some analytical skills at university!