---
title: 'Author Caught with Multiple AI Prompts in Books'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=w1hOCW-Gbr8'
video_id: 'w1hOCW-Gbr8'
date: 2026-08-17
duration_sec: 1030
channel: 'kat ''n chat'
---

# Author Caught with Multiple AI Prompts in Books

> Source: [Author Caught with Multiple AI Prompts in Books](https://youtube.com/watch?v=w1hOCW-Gbr8)

## Summary

The video discusses the discovery of an Italy travel guide on Amazon that contains leftover AI prompts, revealing the author's use of generative AI without proper disclosure. The creator also explores broader debates about AI-generated art and writing, including the value of creativity and the ethics of AI use.

### Key Points

- **Discovery of AI Prompts in Published Book** [00:02] — A Reddit post in r/mildlyinfuriating shows a book with the text 'Turn the pages and let your venture begin. If you want, I can now write the full first Pitagalano in a way that pulls the reader in...' which is a typical ChatGPT response, indicating the author left the AI prompt in the book.
- **Coverage by Yahoo Travel** [01:25] — The story was picked up by Yahoo Travel in an article by Lauren Novak titled 'Italy travel guide arrives with an infuriating leftover AI prompt printed inside.' The Amazon listing shows the book 'The City of Stone and Sunlight 2026 Guide for Pitano' by Gerald Baker, with 104 reviews, mostly one-star.
- **Multiple Books with AI Prompts** [02:33] — The author Gerald Baker has multiple travel guides for Italian cities, and the AI prompt is also visible in the sample of another book, 'Taro Italy's Secret Seaside Escape 2026.' This suggests the author used AI for multiple books and didn't proofread any of them.
- **Concern About Dilution of Media** [04:44] — The creator expresses concern that the sanctity of books is being diluted by people pumping out 'slop material' using AI, and notes that the book's background images look AI-generated, with buildings melting into each other.
- **Amazon's AI Disclosure Policy** [05:12] — Amazon requires publishers to disclose AI-generated material when the book contains AI-generated text, images, or translations, but not when AI is used only to edit or brainstorm. The creator argues that the cover looks AI-generated and should be disclosed on the product page.
- **Debate on AI and Art Skills** [05:41] — A post mocking the statement 'If you use AI, you don't have any art skills' features an AI-generated graphic with errors like extra fingers. The creator argues that not using skills causes them to diminish, using his own swimming experience as an example.
- **Quote on AI and Illusion** [08:43] — A user quote: 'AI is popular because it gives dumb people the illusion they are smart and uncreative people the illusion they are creative.' The creator agrees, questioning how someone can look at an AI-generated product and claim they made it.
- **Creativity Ends Where You Stop Drawing** [10:09] — A user asks 'I drew these. AI finished them. Where exactly does my creativity end?' The creator argues that creativity ends where you stop drawing and thinking, as every choice made by AI had no input from the user.
- **Ideas Are a Dime a Dozen** [12:49] — The creator shares a hot take: 'Everybody and their mom has good ideas. The difference between a good idea and a good final product is the ability to output and turn that idea into a final product.' Gen AI makes people feel they can turn ideas into reality without the skill.
- **AI Bro Response and Theft** [13:45] — A post by Michael says 'You didn't make a movie. AI did... You didn't do anything, AI did. And it only was able to do it by stealing from others.' The creator agrees, noting that AI creations wouldn't exist without the theft of others' work.
- **Execution vs. Idea** [14:49] — The creator disagrees with the point that AI bros deserve credit for prompting and executing, comparing it to ordering a custom pizza from Domino's and calling yourself a chef. The difference is the ability to execute and have your hand in every part of creation.
- **Food for Thought** [16:35] — A Twitter user writes 'I don't know call it slop. It's not like we're insulting their work.' The creator asks viewers for their thoughts on Gen AI and whether they support it, ending with a call to like and subscribe.

### Conclusion

The video highlights the absurdity of an author leaving AI prompts in multiple published books, sparking a broader discussion on AI-generated content, creativity, and the ethics of using AI without disclosure.

## Transcript

this channel in the past who have been caught red-handed using Gen AI, but this one is even worse. So, strap in and let's delve into the situation. And again, please don't send hate to any parties involved. Look at this. So, this
was actually originally posted to Reddit apparently in r/mildly infuriating, but this person posted this image on threads and they write, "When you don't proofread the book, you wrote SMH." And real quick, if you want to look for some
beautiful artwork, well, look no further than Draw Market. There's over 300,000 talented artists on this platform. And best of all, there is no AI. So, if you some artwork or purchase some commissions for yourself, give Draw
Market a try and you can check it out here or in the link below. So, thank you And now, let's get back to it. And it is a book where it says, "Turn the pages and let your venture begin." If you want, I can now write the full first
Pitagalano in a way that pulls the reader in with vivid, modern, and practical insights for 2026. Do you want me to do that next? If you guys don't know, that is one of those responses you're going to get from chat GPT if you
ask it something. So, OP probably prompted it with, oh, write a book about Pitigalano and give me the first chapter and this is what chatbt would respond to you with. They left the response prompt inside their book. This actually made it
to Yahoo Travel. This is an article written August 9th by Lauren Novak titled, "Italy travel guide arrives with an infuriating leftover AI prompt printed inside." So, this is the Amazon listing. It's written by somebody called
Gerald Baker, The City of Stone and Sunlight 2026 Guide for Pitano. Interestingly, there is 104 reviews and they're all one stars for the most part. Absolutely absurd. And people found the ebook version as well, writing, "This
book is terrible. It's the result of an AI prompt with no specifics. It could author was so lazy they didn't even take out the conversation with the AI chatbot. A lot of people writing AI slop. AI slop AI slop. And you know
in the beginning. Here we have the introduction. It's in the sample. Bro, didn't [laughter] even proofread their own book enough to figure out the fact that the sample, which shows like the first 10 pages of the book, actually
reveals the AI prompt caught in 4K HD. Bro, that's absolutely wild. And note the irony. Copyrighted material written on every single page. Hm. Wow. But you didn't write this yourself. We got Gen AI prompts in here. That is so funny.
And dude, the rabbit hole gets even deeper because this is actually absurd because this author, Gerald Baker, who who knows if that's even their real other guides on other cities in Italy. Another one. Another one. Another one.
Another one. And guess what? Let's take a look at this one. Taro Italy's Secret Seaside Escape 2026. Complete travel guide. Let's read the sample, guys. By reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means. electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise the copyright holder. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Now we have the introduction. Dream about a seascape. In the following guide, you'll
blah blah blah blah. This is the same format we saw in the other book, right? How to use this guide. They left the AI prompt in this one, too. Also visible inside the sample. If you want, I can write the next full chapter one, Welcome
to Taro, in a way that truly immerses the reader in the village and sets up the travel experience. Do you want me to do that? They left it in multiple books. It's not even that one that Reddit found because it's in this one as well. This
is why it's so absurd, right? Because if you've used Genai in assistance to write one of your books, I am going to assume you use it in multiple of your books. Because what are the odds the first time you got caught was actually the first
time you did it? Probably not. You probably did it multiple times, but what are the odds that you leave it in multiple books? That either means you didn't try at all, which you didn't, or two, you went into chat and copy and
pasted your entire conversation with a chatbot into a book and then printed that out without flipping the pages yourself. Not even once, cuz you would have caught it. This is on page eight. This is absolutely absurd. Out of all
the times that I've covered stories about people who have written books and because I've talked about a couple of these, never have I seen an author who has done it in multiple books. Or maybe they have, but their book sucks, so
nobody read multiple of them. I don't know, man. But the fact that there's two of them, my jaw is on the floor. It just sucks because it feels like the sanctity sucks because it feels like the sanctity of a media that is so beloved, books, is
being diluted due to people pumping out slop material. And again, if that isn't even enough about the writing, I'm not fully confident the background is legitimate as well. A lot of these uh people in boats are looking real funny.
We've got buildings that are like melting into other buildings. And it's notes that Amazon requires publishers to disclose AI generated material when the book contains AI generated text, images, or translations, but that Amazon doesn't
require disclosure when AI is used only to edit or brainstorm material. Although I would argue that the cover looks AI generated and that it apparently is a publication and is not shown on the product page where I would argue that I
feel like it should be shown on the product page so that customers can make want to purchase or not. But absolutely wow my jaw is on the floor. We have this post where the user writes, "If you use AI, you don't have any art skills."
Making fun of that statement that a lot of us artists say. And here is an AI generated graphic. Self-proclaimed to be AI generated, but again, you take one look and use your eyeballs. Bros got five fingers on this hand and bros got
four on this hand and five on this one. The math is not mathing. And basically, sheet where, as you can see, they have all of these other traits like drawing, composition, color editing, and there's a trait for AI prompting. And the comic
reads, "If you use AI, you don't have any art skills." Again, this is what the haters say, right? And OP is saying, "Bro thinks training one skill means I implying that like just because they're racking up points in AI prompting
design, composition, drawing. Interestingly, adaptability or always leveling is at infinity. And it says training one skill doesn't delete the rest. Again, I would really argue on our usage of the word skill in this context,
this down to a couple points. Training quote unquote one skill doesn't delete quote unquote one skill doesn't delete the rest. Not using skills does cause your skills to diminish. Okay? Look, back in high school, I was on the swim
team for two years. Okay? I swam, had some decent cardio. I suck though. But some decent cardio. I suck though. But you ask me now to go swim a 500. That's I could back then. I can't do it now. You know why? Because I haven't swam in
skill, you lose it. So, it's actually like kind of a false statement. But secondly, the overall point I vastly disagree with. And you don't even need comments are loudly making fun of this person. It's so funny. They got ratio to
absolute hell. And the top comment with 15.2,000 likes. Mind you, the OG post 300 likes, right? Frog of shame. If the frog of shame gets more likes than the original post, then your post really sucks. And imagine you're just this
frog. Like one frog chilling in the wilderness not knowing you became a That's really funny. Another person adds a meme of a hand unplugging something writing, "Oops, there goes your talent." And another meme by Twanks that says,
"Ai design logic." And it is somebody sitting at a restaurant with a waiter waiter comes back with the cheese pizza and the person's like, "Wow, look what I eyeing him. And another person adds, "Might want to take AI prompting off the
skills list because as you can see, there's a lot of errors with the piece. halfway in the middle of the book, but like torn in half for some reason." And bait, but I just think it's interesting when people rage bait for the sake of
their own motivations at the end of the day. Some people, I guess, live to go make other people angry, but threads yeed their monetization program a while really make money from posting on threads anymore per views that you get.
So, I'm just curious about the uh incentive for stuff like that. And I think this quote is really valid. A user writes, "AI is popular because it gives dumb people the illusion they are smart and uncreative people the illusion they
right? Because at the end of the day, I don't understand personally and maybe I don't get it because I don't generate images with AI, but that how can you look at a final product that was generated so you didn't draw it and be
like, "Wow, I made that. I am so creative." You know, you didn't make it. What level of delusion is happening up there? That's like me being like, "Wow, book." I don't know. Actually, I haven't read it yet. I made this. I purchased it
purchased. I didn't write anything in here. Like, you know, you didn't make it, so it doesn't make sense to me. And I feel like this post is really Quote, "No way. You wrote a five-page essay without AI." End quote. Buddy, we
wrote them without even reading the book. And this got 198,000 likes. Have you guys been there back in the day when you're in school and there's an essay like most of the book and you have to
writing by like the seat of your pants. Is that the saying? And you're going at it. One time my claim to fame English class at college. I met my partner at But there was like an in-class essay and then it's a 1 hour and 30 minute class,
right? But I was napping and I slept through like half the class. So I woke and I showed up with 45 minutes left and just sat down and wrote as furiously and as quickly as possible and I got like an A minus on the essay. Like wasn't even
this post that I find very interesting. A user writes, "I drew these. AI finished them. Where exactly does my creativity end?" And here we have post-it note drawings. Here's a doodle of a guy smoking what looks like a cigar
with an afro. This is the AI finished piece. Here is another person kind of looking off to the side wearing a shirt. And this is the AI piece. Here is another drawing with like four people. Here is them together. And this one was
really funny. A user screenshotted the thread's post and then drew an arrow between the two pieces, right? The left one being the handdrawn on the post-it note and the right one being the AI image and they wrote right here and drew
that's true, right? If you drew them and where you drew it. I feel like it's like equivalent of like if you drew this and handed it off to another artist to finish the piece. Your creativity also
ended like there because the other artist finished the piece so they added is not another artist by the way, but I'm just giving this as a hypothetical. and appreciate it for what it is. 100% has more character than the slop. Your
creativity ends wherever you stop drawing and thinking." An OP says, "Is art only drawing or is it an expression of what you have in your mind?" I never sketch would look like in real life. Except for the group, it seems the
photos represent exactly my vision. So, why should it be a slo? It's part of the art. I think that's definitely an interesting take to have the whole art and drawing and stuff like that is an expression of what you have in your
mind. So, they drew it and they drew it on a bunch of post-it notes. That is the think I guess their feeling is maybe that their art level is disconnected wanted it to be more rendered out but their art level did not allow them to do
so. So by saying I want to see how my sketch looks like in real life it's because they don't know how to draw realism so they use Gen AI to fill in that's where your creativity ended because every choice made from your
sketch to the final product of the Gen AI image had no input from you in terms of correcting the output, right? Your input was your sketch. That is the limit of your creativity. That is where your creativity ended. Every choice the AI
made was AI. It had nothing to do with you. It's the same thing if you gave an artist that sticky note and was like, "Draw this." and the artist rendered it out in a realism style, your creativity ended where that sticky note is because
extra stuff to it. So, I kind of failed to see the point. And also, I have a take. And it's that a lot of people tend to think their ideas are worth more than
dime a dozen. Everybody and their mom has good ideas. The difference between a good idea and then a good final product is the ability to output and turn that idea into a final product. the amount of good ideas people have for video games,
movies, art, etc. People have good ideas all the freaking time. It's easy to think and imagine and fantasize, it is hard to turn that into a reality. And what Gen AI is doing, it's making people feel like they have the ability to turn
all of these ideas they think are amazing million-dollar ideas into some reality. And I think it's making people feel like they have a lot more likeness to artists who use their hands to turn their ideas into reality. Kind of like a
invitation into a club that they originally couldn't join because they didn't know how to draw. And instead of learning how to join to join said club, they uh used the the AI machine to do it. And we have this post, right, where
the user Michael writes to all the AI bros, "You didn't make a movie. AI did. didn't make a song, AI did. You didn't write a book, AI did. You didn't create an animation, AI did. You didn't do anything, AI did. And it only was able
to do it by stealing from others. And that I want to add to that exactly to the point that I was talking about because the people who use Genai to write their book or their song or post or whatever because it was built off of
their idea, they feel like they own the final product and that the final product was made purely off of 100% of their creativity and that it was like a manifestation of everything they weren't able to do. But I disagree with that
because again, you didn't make any of the difficult hard choices, any of the creation part, whatever. It wasn't done by you. It was done by AI. And it might feel like it was done by you because the idea came from you. But again, it's not
Another person has a point where they write, "They prompted the AI. They thought of the idea. They executed on the plan." Sure, AI built the ideas, but execute, the AI wouldn't have done anything. So AI bros deserve some
credit. And again, to this point, I disagree. Going back to the hot take that I had, everybody has good ideas. Everybody has an idea that's a million-dollar idea. Again, the difference is the ability to do it and
to execute on it and the process to make it exactly your own and do every final touch and have your hand in every part of the creation of it. That's beautiful. Bringing something to life. Having a good idea and then going to AI to make
the idea come true is not the same thing. Again, that's like me having a really, really good idea for a pizza. So, I go to Domino's and customize my I'm like, "Wow, look at this pizza that I made. I didn't make the pizza. Sure, I
had the idea to go and add every single meat topping known to man on this pizza. I didn't make this pizza. Domino's did." And I ordered it and somebody delivered myself. It's not the same. You can't call me a chef because I put together a
but please sponsor me. I love Domino's. Their crust is amazing. And the theft is the other part of it. A I was only able to do it by stealing from others. And that's the thing, your creation would never exist without the theft from other
people's work. And it's always interesting because the AI bros get very angry if somebody takes their idea where it's like if they have an idea for some sort of, I don't know, little Studio Giblly ripoff anime and then somebody
one, they get very mad. They have so much protection over their idea. And again, maybe it's a hot take, but everybody has good ideas. You creating something out of your idea with Gen AI. You making an Italy travel guide using
Gen AI is not the same as somebody actually researching Italy, living out where the best places are and then putting together a guide through that. with, and this is very food for thought, a user on Twitter writes, "I don't know
call it slop. It's not like we're insulting their work." So, what are your thoughts on all of this? From everything that we've covered to the Italy travel books, that one was absolutely wild. Multiple prompts left in there. Absurd.
day? Do you like Genai? Do you not support Genai? I'm curious about your like and subscribe. Don't forget to check me out on Etsy or coffee. And I'm you want to follow me there, it would mean a lot. And I also stream on Twitch
p.m. PST or Thursdays at 7:30, where I do a podcast with my friend. So, hope to catch you all there or in another video. Peace.