“82% of Amazon ‘Herbal Remedies’ Books in 2025 Were Likely
AI-Written.” This article published at Originality.ai
in November confirmed my suspicions. I
just didn’t realize how rampant the problem was. As I’ve contemplated the issue, I’ve become
both disgusted and alarmed, because I see how AI corrupts writing. And there’s no reason to believe that it won’t
corrupt herbal remedies.
I’m also bothered because I know you aren’t relying on just
one herbal reference. You don’t want to
waste money on AI-slop, either. How can
you separate the wheat from the chaff?
Was it published on Amazon in 2025? As noted in this article, there’s an 82%
chance it’s AI-generated.
Does the author’s name incorporate a nature-theme? According to the Originality.ai article 76%
of likely AI-generated works had author names like Rose, Fern, or Clove. Tamsin Meadowcroft? Jacob Sage O’Dennis? Highly suspect.
Is the author’s photo AI-generated? Oddly, that seems to be the case largely with
the AI-suspect books.
Does the author have an online presence? What author doesn’t try to get the word out
about his books? Authors bear the lion’s
share of responsibility for marketing their books. Without an online presence, the author isn’t
likely to be a real person. The
Originality.ai article pays particular attention to this topic and highlights
Luna Filby, of Byron Bay, Australia. This
person doesn’t exist and isn’t an author, especially of herbal medicine. She definitely does not teach classes. Rosalinda Montes and Clara Linden, promoters
of Dr. Sebi’s work (he wasn’t a doctor, and his real name was Alfredo Bowman), are
also highly suspect, based on their lack of author presence on Amazon.
Are there other books? Writing a good book takes time. AI generates rubbish in mere hours. Ron Michael churned out an impressive eight titles
in the past six months. Some of them
look suspiciously like Nerissa Winslow’s books.
How well do you think they are written?
Or do hers look like his? Who
plagiarized whom? What do you think
about their Canine Herbal Apothecary books? Did they both plagiarize Angela Lain’s book, Herbal
Natural Remedies for Dogs, which came out two months earlier? Sounds like a line out of Ellery Queen. Oh, and Ron Michael’s Canine Herbal Apothecary
has the exact same number of pages as Angela Lain’s Herbal Natural Remedies for
Dogs. Awkward.
Does the title sound like every other title? The most popular keywords are apothecary,
holistic, ancient, and Bible. Might want
to throw Amish in for good measure.
Does the author use emojis in the book summary? Most AI-suspect
books do; only 6% of books written by people have emojis.
Does the summary sound like other herbal remedy book
summaries? If so, again it’s likely
to be AI.
Does the cover look suspiciously like a lot of other
herbal reference covers? As I was taking
a look at herbal references on Amazon tonight, and the pit in my stomach got
deeper, I realized something that the Originality.ai article did not point
out: many covers of AI-suspicious books
look alike. And I’m not talking about a
series by the same author, but covers by different authors.
What are the odds that all these authors have such similar covers and they all were published this year?
Do the reviews sound generic or as if they’re not written
by real people? That’s another clue.
AI will continue to improve and thus may become much harder
to identify. I wish I had a solution. The best remedy I have right now is to include a regional adjective in your search terms when looking for herbal medicine titles. That seems to help.
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