Amazon Unleashes Gen AI For Product Descriptions, Curbs It For Kindle

Amazon.com has introduced a generative AI service that it claims will “dramatically improve the listing creation and management experience for sellers.” The company says the AI “will simplify how Amazon sellers create more thorough and captivating product descriptions” and “enrich existing listings, helping customers more confidently make purchase decisions.” The Register reports: Using an unspecified large language model, Amazon will allow sellers to enter “a brief description of the product in a few words or sentences” and then “generate high-quality content for their review.” Sellers can review the AI output, or just “directly submit the automatically generated content to the Amazon catalog.” Amazon reckons the results will offer customers “more complete, consistent, and engaging product information that will enhance their shopping experiences.”

Authors who post their works to the e-tail elephant’s Kindle bookstore also need to consider AI as last week the content guidelines for e-book authors and publishers added a requirement to disclose machine-generated content “when you publish a new book or make edits to and republish an existing book.” Amazon wants to be told of any AI-generated images, texts, or translations. Altering the work of an AI does not exempt authors and publishers from this requirement, as Amazon’s definition of “AI-generated” includes material generated by a machine that received “substantial edits” by a human. AI-assisted content — defined as material created by a human and then offered to a machine for edits, refinements, error-checks or other improvements — doesn’t have to be disclosed.