Seniors Are Buying Up AI Slop and Gifting It to the Youth

Parents are dealing with an influx of AI-generated children’s books, and while many of them can tell the difference, grandparents seem to be struggling. Seniors are reportedly buying up AI slop books and gifting them to younger family members, leaving them with stories that don’t read well or feature uncanny images.

Many AI children’s books contain clumsy prose, nonsensical plots, illustrations that miss essential details, and other obvious errors—a prime example of AI slop. Some can also be customized to include real photos of the child recipient, which can make the parents of those children uncomfortable. In a Wired story, one parent even said a grandparent had tried to generate a personalized book about a grandchild despite the parent’s repeated objections.

AI-generated books have to come from somewhere, and unfortunately, they’ve taken over online marketplaces. A year ago, Indicator found hundreds of 517 nonfiction children’s books on Amazon that appeared to be partially or fully AI-generated; Amazon removed fewer than 40% of them after being notified of the AI’s role in their creation. Some titles copied the style or branding of well-known children’s series, which made them harder to spot at a glance.

One arts and literature scholar says children deserve books with intentional, human-made writing and artwork, clear authorship, and meaningful learning. But with low-cost AI-generated books often mimicking real books or hiding in plain sight, unwitting buyers are bound to keep snatching them up.