--- title: "Seemingly AI-Written Book on Maui Wildfire Becomes Amazon Bestseller, Gets Taken Down" description: "A book claiming to document the events of the Maui wildfires was published on Amazon just days after the deadly disaster had begun." date: "2023-08-21" modified: "2023-08-21" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-written-book-maui-wildfire-amazon-bestseller" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "Amazon" - "fake news" - "generative ai" - "the digest" --- # Seemingly AI-Written Book on Maui Wildfire Becomes Amazon Bestseller, Gets Taken Down ![A book claiming to document the events of the Maui wildfires was published on Amazon just days after the deadly disaster had begun.]() *\Image: Robert Gauthier via Getty\* ## Fake News Earlier this August, a catastrophic [wildfire broke out on the Hawaiian island of Maui](), razing entire towns and leaving at least 116 hundred people dead. And then, while over a thousand people still remained missing, a book that claimed to document the Maui wildfires was published on Amazon just days after the disaster, briefly becoming a bestseller in its category, [according to ]()*[The Register]().* Titled "Fire and Fury: The Story of the 2023 Maui and its Implications for Climate Change," the 87-page volume has now been removed from Amazon's marketplace, [*Gizmodo* reports]() — and everything points to it being a cold-blooded, AI-written cash grab, which is now being used to fuel conspiracy theories. More on that in a minute. "Clearly this author, or rather parasite, is writing for profit," stated one [Amazon review]() of the unanimously one-star rated book. ## Book Hook The impossible timeliness of its publication is already one strike against "Fire and Fury"'s credibility. Even though its publication date is visibly listed as August 10, its description claims to chronicle "the events of August 8 -11." Dr. Miles Stones, its stated author, does not appear to exist. His biography states only that "I'd rather not say." Examining the book's prose does it no favors, either. Its description on Amazon starts with the words "The book" in five out of the seven sentences in the same paragraph, notes an [analysis by *Snopes*](). *Snopes* also found that the writing inside the book is "clunky" like an AI's. The formatting, too, is all over the place, filled with inexplicable blank pages and stock images. It should come as no surprise, then, that the book has already been taken down. Amazon did the same earlier this month, when [author Jane Friedman discovered fraudulent, AI-generated books with her name on them]() being sold on its marketplace. After widespread outcry, Amazon quietly removed them. ## Misinformation Machine Overall, it seems like a fairly open-and-shut case. Some dirtbag used a large language model like [ChatGPT]() to vomit out a whole book, then shoddily packaged it for Amazon to make a quick buck on a horrific tragedy. Yet the book's speedy publication has fueled the imaginations of some climate-denying conspiracy theorists, who sincerely cite it as evidence that the Maui wildfires were a pre-planned disaster. "One has to ask one's self, how does a book like this emerge so quickly?" asked another Amazon reviewer, as quoted by *Gizmodo*. "Fire and Fury" is thus a perfect example of AI's effortless propensity [for spreading misinformation](): the book itself is a totally made up account of a current event, it was generated within just days of said tragedy, and it inadvertently became evidence for conspiracy theories. **More on AI:** *[Google's SGE Search AI Is Devouring False AI-Generated Info and Saying It's True]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()