AI-generated fake biographies of Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney, Humza Yousaf removed from Amazon

The online retail giant is in the process of removing a number of books, which appear to be AI generated, which falsely document the lives of John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf.

One book, called ‘John Swinney: Scotland’s Education Architect’ by Brendy Beauty, falsely claims Mr Swinney is a half-Polish teacher from Akron in Ohio, born to a Polish school dinner lady called ‘Kazimiera’.

The book goes on to say the First Minister “was not actually born in Scotland like many people may think”, and says he moved to Dunfermline as a child and battled poverty to become a teacher in Tayside.

In reality, Mr Swinney is originally from Edinburgh, his mother is called Agnes and despite being education secretary has never worked in a school.

The book promises “candid interviews and behind-the-scenes details” of Mr Swinney’s life and says it “reveals the political manoeuvrings and ideological battles that manifested Swinney’s goal of equity and excellence in education”.

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There are several fake biographies on Ms Sturgeon, which have short page lengths and have publication dates in the past few weeks.

One said her family “placed a high cost on education, difficulty painting and public service” and said her “mom” became a “nearby flesh presser”.

Ms Sturgeon’s real biography, ‘Frankly’, is being printed and will be officially launched next month at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

A further fake biography on Mr Yousaf claims he grew up in poverty and that his father was called ‘Mohammed’. Mr Yousaf in fact went to private school and his father is called Muzaffar.

Sam Stockwell, a research associate for the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security at The Alan Turing Institute in London, told The Times there was a risk these books could have a “persuasive effect” on voters.

He said: “As generative AI becomes more accessible, many users can now automate professionalised descriptions and even full-length books of politicians using the immense amount of data these tools scrape from the internet on such individuals.

“Since text also lacks more obvious cues compared to videos or images, which allow users to determine whether it is authentic or generated by AI, there is a risk that these AI-generated biographies could have a more persuasive effect on those who read them.”

Mr Stockwell added: “With Scottish elections looming next year, one of the main concerns here is that threat actors could seek to undermine the reputation of political candidates by uploading fake biographies, which include harmful, fabricated claims.

“Perhaps most worryingly, an absence of any labels or information indicating that these texts are AI-generated makes it more challenging for users to be aware of when they may be consuming such content.”

The Canadian elections earlier this year were marred by AI disinformation, including fake quotes from biographies of Liberal leader Mark Carney and doctored pictures of his wife. At least 16 books on the now Canadian prime minister were advertised on Amazon during the elections.

A spokesperson for Amazon said: “We have content guidelines governing which books can be listed for sale, and we have pro-active and reactive methods that help us detect content that violates our guidelines, whether AI-generated or not.

“We invest significant time and resources to ensure our guidelines are followed and remove books that do not adhere to those guidelines.”

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “This is not an accredited biography of the First Minister and many of the claims in this book are untrue. People should be aware of the risk of misinformation and disinformation online.”