As Artificial Intelligence continues to influence every day life more and more, it has now found its way into royal controversy regarding the cancer diagnosis of King Charles III.

Offensive suggestions surrounding the monarch’s illness have been made in AI books and have sparked outrage at Buckingham Palace after they were sold on Amazon, with owner Jeff Bezos coming in for strong criticism for allowing such material through his platform.

Legal action is very much a possibility against the internet giant as a response to them permitting sales of SEVEN different computer-generated books, each making shocking false revelations and issuing bizarre theories on the King’s health, as well as speculating in what the Palace called an “intrusive and insensitive” way.

Some of the fake content tries to claim to have inside knowledge and although the books have now been removed from sale, much of the damage has already been done.

Published on same day as announcement

The AI books clearly breach Amazon’s guidelines, yet were allowed to appear alongside genuine best-selling royal books on the site. One of the fake books given the title: “The King’s Battle: Charles III and His Fight Against Cancer” was published on the very same day as the diagnosis was first announced.

In it there are suggestions that the King sought “professional help”, felt “vulnerable and scared”, consulted a “psychologist” and “attended support groups”. It is full of extremely damaging falsehoods and even tried to imply that Charles had to deal with the “side effects of chemotherapy”, and “fatigue from radiation therapy”.

Distasteful and offensive

Similarly, and also on the day of the Palace’s big reveal, Amazon published a second book, this one called: “Behind Palace Walls: The Untold Secrets and Truth of the Cancer Diagnoses of King Charles”. In contrast to the first book, this one takes a completely different route, but is equally as distasteful.

In this there is the insinuation that the cancer is only a minor form of skin cancer and it is all just an “elaborate public relations gambit”. It all leaves a very bad taste in the mouth and although Amazon did remove the majority of the publications after their discovery, they did not get rid of them all.

Unwilling to reveal

Additionally, the monster tech company flatly refused to disclose the identities of the “authors” and with them being uploaded via self-publishing functions, there is no other way of revealing exactly who they are.

The reputation of Amazon will have taken a hit, but it is unlikely that Mr Bazos – the third richest man in the world – will be particularly fazed, given that his company pockets up to 65 per cent of the books’ sale price.

Palace statement

In an unprecedented statement issued by Buckingham Palace they called upon any “individuals or organisations facilitating the sale of the books to withdraw them immediately.”

They went on to say that “any speculation about His Majesty’s diagnosis and treatment are intrusive, insensitive and filled with inaccuracies,” before warning that their lawyers are already looking into it very closely.

Questioning the guidelines

The publications produced in a blink of an eye, dramatically uncover the staggering ease with which unscrupulous individuals can tap into AI to disperse misinformation and untruths about celebrities and public figures, and sadly huge enterprises such as Amazon seem to be unable to stop them.

Amazon for their part did release a statement of their own which argued that they had invested “significant time and resources” to ensure books published on its website followed its “content guidelines”.

Continuing, they said that they did not allow such violations and that included content that “creates a disappointing customer experience”. They insisted that they had “removed the titles we found that violated our guidelines.”

It seems that these SEVEN different titles must have initially slipped through.

Support for King

Royal biographer Hugo Vickers was understandably furious, highlighting how upsetting it will be for the Royal Family and making the point: “It’s in extremely bad taste for these books to be published by Amazon, especially as they share unhelpful misinformation.”

He called for the AI books to be “regulated and labelled”, to make everyone aware that they are “irresponsible publications”, rather than “well-researched, legitimate works.”

Long-term friend of Charles, Lord Michael Dobbs, said: “This intrusion on the King’s privacy when he is sick and suffering shows just how low some will stoop.” He went on to ask: “Why is this rubbish still on sale? Amazon is a great firm, it can and it must, do better than this.”

Someone else angry with the giant publishing company was celebrated novelist Dame Margaret Drabble, who asked why Amazon could not control “these exploitative fantasists”.

The cost of these publications ranged from £6.99 for an e-book, up to £15.99 for a paperback, which is printed and distributed by Amazon.