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Amazon removes AI biographies of SNP politicians

Getty Images A bald man with glasses and a woman with short brown fair hair stand side by side. The man is wearing a dark suit, white shirt and blue tie. The woman is wearing a light blue suit. There is a painting on a wall behind them, out of focus in the back of the shot. Getty Images
Books about John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon have been removed by Amazon

Error-strewn unofficial biographies of high-profile SNP politicians, which appear to have been created using AI, have been removed from sale by Amazon.

Two books about First Minister John Swinney and his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon were taken down from the site after the Times reported they contained several false claims.

Four more unofficial biographies of Sturgeon and another former First Minister, Humza Yousaf, were listed as unavailable after the BBC asked Amazon about the titles.

The firm said it removed books that violated its content guidelines.

The Times reported that a book about Swinney - called John Swinney Biography: John Swinney: Scotland's Education Architect - falsely claimed the first minister was born in the US to a Polish mother.

The newspaper also highlighted several inaccuracies in other books about Sturgeon and Yousaf's families.

Amazon A composite image of two books. One is called Nicola Sturgeon, The Biography. It has a large AI-generated image of a woman with brown hair on the front cover. Another is about Humza Yousaf. It is blue with old-fashioned fonts and images on the cover. Amazon
Amazon has removed several books about Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf

Four books were removed from sale on Monday afternoon after the BBC approached Amazon about them.

Ranging from 36 to 85 pages, they contained grammatical errors and bizarre sentence formulations.

One claimed to be an "exposé" of a police investigation into SNP finances.

According to the book description on Amazon, it was written by "renowned author" Brian B. Porter, who was said to have told the story of Sturgeon and the SNP with "expert storytelling and meticulous research".

It was the only book of the four to have been reviewed. It had an average rating of 1.3 out of five stars, with disappointed readers describing it as "terrible" and lacking "any detail or substance".

Brian B. Porter is named as the author on several other seemingly AI-generated books listed on Amazon - including titles on former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, American composer Burt Bacharach and Canadian ice-hockey player Bobby Hull.

The books about Yousaf, who was privately educated, repeatedly suggested he had grown up in poverty.

PA Media A man with a dark hair and beard speaks in front of a blue sign. He is wearing a black suit, white shirt and purple tartan tie. PA Media
The books about Humza Yousaf featured several errors

An Amazon spokesperson said: "We have content guidelines governing which books can be listed for sale, and we have proactive 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."

An SNP spokesperson said none of the books were accredited biographies of Swinney, Yousaf or Sturgeon and that "many of the claims" in them were untrue.

They added: "People should be aware of the risk of misinformation and disinformation online."

Both the Scottish and UK governments have spoken of the positive impact AI technology could have on efforts to improve public services - such as the NHS.

However, writers and publishers have expressed fears about the impact of generative AI programs, such as ChatGPT, on the creation of new literature and books.

And with Scottish Parliament elections looming in May 2026, there have also been warnings about AI fuelling disinformation potentially being used to disrupt elections.