Editor’s Introductory Note: The alarming trend that is described in this article is also taking place in many other book genres. It is possible that at least one of the author names cited in this article may be genuine, so I’m preemptively stating: Jennifer Rader’s article is an attempt to accurately describe the extent of A.I.-generated trickery in contemporary publishing. If the she has mentioned any actual living human authors by mistake, our apologies. We will be glad to update this article with corrections or clarifications. – JWR
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As a preparedness author, the meteoric rise in the number of AI-written books on the market disturbs me. The hit to my profit isn’t substantial. However, I am bothered that good people will be deceived and may even employ fallacious herbal remedies that do more harm than good. While the following information pertains to herbal medicine references, most principles can be applied to preparedness and survival books which are also flooding the market.
According to Michael Fraiman, writing at Originality.ai: “82% of Amazon ‘Herbal Remedies’ Books in 2025 Were Likely AI-Written.”
Fraiman’s November, 2025 article confirmed my suspicions. I hadn’t realized 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. My children have queried ChatGPT about my own research. And while the responses they have received are about 85% accurate, there are also outright fabrications. How many people find a 15% error rate acceptable with medical information, of any sort? There’s no reason to believe that AI won’t corrupt herbal remedies. AI could make them ineffective, less effective, or lethal. And the reader won’t have any idea that the book they are reading is a fabrication, especially as AI improves.
[JWR Adds: Ironically, Michael Fraiman used AI-driven AI detection tools to research the article.]
In our ongoing efforts to prepare for coming challenges, we continue to expand our libraries, including the herbal reference section. While we might be able to identify the AI garbage once it’s in our hands, how does one avoid wasting money on that slop in the first place? How can you separate the wheat from the chaff before Amazon separates you from your money?
Was it published on Amazon in 2025, or later? As noted in this article, there’s an 82% chance it’s AI-generated. Does the alleged 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.
[JWR Adds: There is a real author who uses the pen name Marjory Wildcraft, so don’t attempt to attribute AI fakery based on author names, alone. ]
Is the author’s photo AI-generated? Oddly, that seems to be the case largely with the AI-suspect books.
Does the author have a genuine 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 (who 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 minutes. “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? This 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. The more likely answer is that they all came from the same source. [JWR Adds: Take a few minutes to examine this Amazon summary page. You can clearly see how the publishing system has been broken by AI, and how the few genuine authors are being crowded out by the AI fakes!]
Does the title sound like every other herbal medicine reference? The most popular keywords are apothecary, holistic, ancient, and Bible. Might want to throw in “Lost Arts” and Amish for good measure.
Does the author use emojis in the book summary? Most AI-suspect books do; only 6% of books written by real 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 book covers? As I was taking a look at herbal references on Amazon, 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 of books that are supposedly by different authors.
Consider, for example, five books that are currently available at Amazon.com. (The cover images may be copyrighted, so I’ll just describe them, rather than post them.) Let’s address the commonalities:
- All are entitled “Natural Healing Handbook or “The Natural Healing Handbook”
- All were published on Amazon in 2025.
- All have a background color of red to reddish-brown.
- All have a very similar decorative border.
Seriously, what are the odds?
Do the reviews sound generic or as if they’re not written by real people? That’s another clue.
Finally, does the book include references? If not, you’ll have a much harder time conducting any further research on herbs of interest to you. And one might wonder about the research the author himself conducted. It’s one thing if the author is a renowned herbalist. They have the reputation and decades of experience. A new kid on the block shouldn’t be dismissed for lack of fame, but s/he better have verifiable research to back the remedies they propose.
If you are on the market for an herbal medicine book, then you’ll have to research to avoid wasting money on AI-generated garbage. Adding a regional adjective to the search terms will narrow the list but will also, unfortunately, eliminate some excellent references that are genuinely human-authored. And sadly, AI will continue to improve and thus may become much harder to identify.
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About the Author: Jennifer Rader is a real living and breathing human being. She is a SurvivalBlog writing contest sponsor and author of the Prep School Daily blog as well as several herbal medicine and other preparedness books. Find her work at: PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com and AuthorJenniferRader.com.
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