Hi Sen, Thanks! This does seem more plausible than Google itself presenting AI slop in response to a Google Books query.
Indeed, it was what I suspected at first. Bartov's book was only published two months ago and has been nominated for the Orwell Prize, so it makes a plausible target for fraud. However, Google AI staunchly claimed the hallucinated book was the official Google Books entry for the book. 🙂 If you'd like to humour me, that part of the conversation went like that, and preceded what I posted earlier. Google AI said: ____________ The Google Books ID YEjTEQAAQBAJ represents the digital or North American metadata footprint (published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux), whereas the main Penguin UK page represents the British print layout (published by Fern Press). Publishers often submit different marketing copy to Google Books than what appears on a retail storefront, but the internal chapters and text remain identical. [1 <https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/477841/israel-what-went-wrong-by-bartov-omer/9781911717690>, 2 <https://gsi.uoregon.edu/gjp-visitors-and-conferences>] If you are trying to decide which version to buy or reference, rest assured that they are the exact same book. _____________ So, it seems, Google AI is no help even on matters pertaining to Google itself. 🙂(Although it is quite good at flattery.) For what it's worth, I am in the UK and can access the Google Books preview for the real US version at https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Israel/ETFYEQAAQBAJ without any problem. If there is an easy and reliable way to identify a book's official Google Books profile, please share it. Otherwise I fear Google Books searches will soon cease to be what they used to be: a good way to find sources on a topic. Best, Andreas On Tue, Jun 16, 2026 at 3:22 PM Sen <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Andreas, > > The error here is not on Google's part (at least in that they didn't > generate this content themselves, though they didn't actively prevent it). > The Google Books link you've attached is not a link to the book's official > Google Books profile. The book with the ID YEjTEQAAQBAJ > <https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=YEjTEQAAQBAJ> is an > AI-generated impostor (likely created to defraud those looking for the > actual book), and the book with the ID ETFYEQAAQBAJ > <https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ETFYEQAAQBAJ> is the > official book. Note that the latter link is region-locked. I can only > access it with my US-based Google account and not my UK-based account. > > Cheers, > Sen > > On Tue, Jun 16, 2026 at 12:55 PM Andreas Kolbe via Wikimedia-l < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Dear all, >> >> From a recent conversation with Google AI: >> >> *Me:* >> The Google book at >> https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Omer_Bartov_Israel/YEjTEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 >> has as its first chapter "Chapter 1. Foundations of a Dream", with the >> subheading "1.1. The Birth of Israel". The Penguin version located at >> https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/477841/israel-what-went-wrong-by-bartov-omer/9781911717690 >> shows "Introduction: From liberation to oppression" as its first entry in >> the Table of contents, followed by chapter "1. Israel's Forever War" as the >> second entry. That is odd, isn't it? >> *Google AI:* >> You are completely right to find that odd—and your sharp eye has caught >> an AI-generated error on that specific Google Books preview page. >> The preview text showing "Chapter 1. Foundations of a Dream" and "1.1. >> The Birth of Israel" is hallucinated placeholder text introduced by >> automated system errors, not the actual text written by Omer Bartov. >> Why the Google Books Preview is Wrong >> >> 1. Automated AI Summarization Errors: When publishers upload metadata >> ahead of a book's release, platforms like Google Books or Amazon >> occasionally use automated AI algorithms to populate a "sample" or outline >> if the actual text restriction settings are strictly locked by the >> publisher. In this case, the system hallucinated standard, generic history >> textbook subheadings instead of pulling from the real manuscript. >> 2. [...] >> >> >> Now, what is worse here is that a Google Books search for "Chapter 1. >> Foundations of a Dream" actually finds the hallucinated content, >> attributing it to Bartov's book. >> >> Wikipedians using Google Books to find sources may want to keep this in >> mind and check that any text displayed to them is actually from the book in >> question. >> >> Andreas >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines >> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >> Public archives at >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/C63LHF4TCEMJMD4V2EENERLU47Q7C2DM/ >> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > >
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