63% of Religious Books on Amazon Are Likely AI-Written, Study Finds

In brief

• Originality.ai flagged 1,272 of 2,034 religious books analyzed on Amazon, or 63%, as likely AI-written.
• Witchcraft had the highest rate at 78%, followed by Hinduism at 76% and Taoism at 74%.
• The study flagged 53% of fact-checkable claims in witchcraft books as potentially false.

Nearly two-thirds of religious books sampled on Amazon were likely written by artificial intelligence, according to a new study of more than 2,000 recently published titles.

In a report released Wednesday, AI detection firm Originality.ai flagged 1,272 of 2,034 books, or 63%, as likely AI-written across 14 religious and belief categories.

Witchcraft had the highest rate, with 78% of books sampled from Amazon's Wicca, Witchcraft & Paganism category classified as likely AI-written. The titles covered subjects including healing crystals, herbal remedies, and cleansing "negative energies." According to report author Michael Fraiman, many of the witchcraft books focused on those subjects.

“One can picture the ideal customer as someone looking for solutions to heal themselves, improve their mental health, or ‘detox' from commonplace chemicals and drugs,” Fraiman told Decrypt. “These Wiccan books can address these concerns without being held to any scientific standard.”