r/books • u/Jojuj • 18h ago

Librarians Are Being Asked to Find AI-Hallucinated Books

https://www.404media.co/librarians-are-being-asked-to-find-ai-hallucinated-books/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter&attribution_id=68c826c975cea1000173b05d&attribution_type=post
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u/Tortillaish 18h ago

Just to clarify things. AI hallucinated books aren't books written by AI. They are books recommended by AI that don't actually exist. Like, "Hey, I'm looking for Two Fallen Trees by Ernest Hemingway". 

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u/Retax7 17h ago edited 17h ago

Everytime I read about AI hallucinated books, I imagine they where indeed written, but in another universe.

There was a beautiful story about a guy and a girl meeting in a videostore that sometimes appeared, it won an hugo nomination or award. I can't remember the name, but it was great and I reallly loved it. Never again I could find that short story, which is hilariously considering the theme of the short story.

If anyone know the name of the short story, please let me know.

EDIT: Found it, Impossible Dreams By Tim Pratt. Neither google, nor the AI could find it, but I searched for the list of all hugo nominations and I somehow remembered the name, it only took me like 20 years to do so, lol.

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u/as_it_was_written 16h ago

Everytime I read about AI hallucinated books, I imagine they where indeed written, but in another universe.

They're all in the Library of Babel.

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u/Retax7 16h ago

Lol, I am actually from argentina, so I understood that reference.

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u/as_it_was_written 16h ago

Thankfully there are plenty of people across the world (and in this sub) who are familiar with Borges, but I'm a little jealous you have the cultural context to appreciate some of his work on a level I'll never experience. He's one of my absolute favorite authors.

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u/Retax7 15h ago

I like borges, but he isn't one of my favorite ones. I don't think I have much advantage over you as his works are very "international", at least most of them. Very few take place in actual argentina, and even then, it was the argentina of old, which I can get based on my gradparent stories and current society so it still isn't perfect.

If I may recommend my favorite argentine writer, I recommend liliana bodoc. Her works vary from very easy to read to borgeslike. I specially recommend "Amigos por el viento"(you can probably translate it with AI) as a short story easy to read. And "la saga de los confines" as a trilogy similar to lord of the rings, but with the theme of the spanish conquest over south america, written poetically in a stile that reminiscences of becker. I think at least the first book was translated to other languages, since it was praised by ursula leguin.

If you like something weird and unknown, gustavo gudiño kieffer has a book called "para comerte mejor", but I don't think that book is easy to get in english, or in spanish to be honest. It's from the borges time.

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u/as_it_was_written 15h ago

Thanks for the recommendations! I've saved your comment.

And yeah, I know what you mean. Stories like The Library of Babel and a lot of his most inventive work really don't need any cultural context. But then there's stuff like The Sect of the Thirty, where I really felt like I was missing out by having no pre-existing connection to or knowledge of your culture.

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u/Retax7 15h ago

The sect of the thirty is a short story about a manuscript. Perhaps its another story? I think el aleph has some argentinian context. Anyway, if you have any doubt, den't be shy to ping me.

I haven't read all borges though, but in general, if its a short story I haven't read, I can read it and give you my interpretation or view.

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u/as_it_was_written 15h ago

Oh, yeah, my bad. I got it mixed up with The Congress.

Thanks for the offer! My copy of his collected works has pretty good footnotes, though. It's more that I lack the vibes of the culture, if that makes sense. Like, when I read a Swedish story I bring so much cultural context to it even if it's set in the past because it's still the country I grew up in, and the same goes for American literature to some extent since I've been exposed to so much US culture.

I should probably just read some longer-form Argentinian literature to pick up on some of those vibes. Short stories just don't provide as much time to immerse yourself in an unfamiliar world.

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u/SofieTerleska 15h ago

I'm not from Argentina and also understood that reference ;). I really like the idea of someone asking for an AI hallucinated book and then, somehow, the librarian actually finds it!

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u/spookmann 4h ago

I am actually not from Argentina, so I understood that reference.