For Christmas I got an intriguing present from a good friend - my really own “best-selling” book.

“Tech-Splaining for Dummies” (excellent title) bears my name and my image on its cover, and it has glowing evaluations.

Yet it was entirely composed by AI, with a couple of simple triggers about me provided by my good friend Janet.

It’s a fascinating read, and really funny in parts. But it also meanders rather a lot, and is somewhere in between a self-help book and a stream of anecdotes.

It mimics my chatty design of writing, however it’s also a bit repeated, and very verbose. It might have exceeded Janet’s prompts in collecting data about me.

Several sentences start “as a leading technology reporter …” - cringe - which might have been from an online bio.

There’s likewise a mystical, repeated hallucination in the type of my feline (I have no family pets). And there’s a metaphor on almost every page - some more random than others.

There are lots of companies online offering AI-book writing services. My book was from BookByAnyone.

When I got in touch with the primary executive Adir Mashiach, based in Israel, he informed me he had sold around 150,000 customised books, generally in the US, since pivoting from putting together AI-generated travel guides in June 2024.

A paperback copy of your own 240-page long best-seller expenses ₤ 26. The company utilizes its own AI tools to create them, based upon an open source large language model.

I’m not asking you to buy my book. Actually you can’t - only Janet, who developed it, can purchase any more copies.

There is presently no barrier to anybody producing one in any person’s name, consisting of stars - although Mr Mashiach says there are guardrails around abusive content. Each book contains a printed disclaimer specifying that it is imaginary, created by AI, and designed “entirely to bring humour and joy”.

Legally, the copyright belongs to the firm, however Mr Mashiach worries that the product is planned as a “personalised gag gift”, and the books do not get sold even more.

He hopes to expand his range, producing different categories such as sci-fi, [users.atw.hu](http://users.atw.hu/samp-info-forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=ce37c6bc5a&action=profile