Market dilution?

In a response to my recent post on compiling AI books, Thad McIlroy sent a link to a paper on the topic, “Generative AI floods and dilutes the market for books” by Tuhin Chakrabarty, Xinyue Liu, Jane C. Ginsburg, and Paramveer Dhillon. He has himself written about it, less than flatteringly, at The Future of Publishing. Chakrabarty et al assure us “When a large supply of cheap-to-produce titles enters a market faster than the sales, revenue, and top ranks available to absorb them, the return and attention left for the average title both fall. We call this dilution.” Mr McIlroy’s most potent point is that it’s hard to see some new thing flooding a market which is already flooded. “In 2025 there were roughly 475,000 new adult fiction titles published, from a total of over 4 million new titles and editions. That’s 71 times more new fiction titles and editions as were published in 1995.” We do need to acknowledge that the use of the computer in the identification of AI content is already…