Given how AI is already polluting the water of literary works, I'm likely never going to read a new book for quite some time, but will just pursue books before 2010.
Is 2010 a good cutoff?
How do you feel about books by Alexandre Dumas? They are from long before AI. But... Dumas had a collaborator called Maquet, who came up with plots and did a big part of the writing. He was an ok writer, but not as good as Dumas. So their collaboration was like this: Dumas paid Maquet to produce quantities of ok stories for him. Then Dumas edited them to add his brilliant language and ideas, and Dumas got to take all the credit and glory.
If an AI can produce a book that takes all of human creativity and blows my socks away in weaving a tapestry of storytelling, then that's great. But I don't see AI being used that way. I see AI being used to sell products. I see AI writing a book that sucks you in the first half, and then moralizes you about the dangers of socialism in the second half whilst promoting Wolf Cola
(Interesting about Dumas though, I had no idea. It doesn't ruin the few books I've read of his for me)
That's pretty ridiculous. The overwhelming majority of writers won't use AI at all. Are you going to somehow avoid all modern media?
If an author used AI as a tool and ended up with a good book, I have no issues with that. There is more to writing a book than spitting out one draft.
I don't believe LLM AI in its current state is capable of writing a good book without heavy guidance and editing by a human, not to mention the world building, research, and story boarding that isn't a part of putting final word on paper, so I'm not worried about it.
Book review sites have already been manipulated for years (Goodreads, owned by Amazon) so I moved elsewhere (Storygraph, Bookwyrm) before generative AI became a concern.
I'm wondering how people will be vouching new books aren't LLM generated?
I think you'd be limiting yourself.
Maybe rely on community reviews more to check it's not slop? Assuming they themselves aren't slop.
Sigh...
I guess it depends whether you prefer reading fiction for entertainment or nonfiction. If you're reading fiction, does it matter if AI wrote or helped write it? Do you watch movies with CGI or only practical effects?
If you don't want to give your money to an AI's handler, utilize the library.
If you're concerned a book will be bad or a waste of time, then adopt a personal policy of giving yourself permission to abandon reading the whole thing if you're not enjoying it. I call this my Bristol Rule, because I was in Bristol (Tennessee) during the last time I forced myself to finish drinking a cocktail that tasted horrible, and I didn't want to waste my money. I ended up with a VERY regrettable hangover. I then resolved to give myself permission to give up, not finish, throw away, walk away from, or generally discontinue something I'm just not enjoying, and accept the monetary loss and the lesson.
