Since ChatGPT debuted on November 30, 2022, something has shifted in the way the world produces written material. Weekly English-language e-book publications on Amazon have nearly tripled, more than half of new books published by the end of 2025 included AI-generated text, and parallel spikes are showing up in self-filed lawsuits and scientific papers.
A Washington Post analysis tracks the phenomenon across multiple domains, painting a picture of an internet increasingly saturated with machine-assisted prose. A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research confirms what many suspected: the rate of publication and content generation surged dramatically after OpenAI flipped the switch on its chatbot.
The numbers tell the story
By the end of 2025, more than half of newly published books contained AI-generated text.
This isn’t limited to fiction or self-help titles flooding Kindle Unlimited. The legal system is feeling it too. Self-filed lawsuits, the kind where individuals represent themselves without attorneys, show a clear uptick in language patterns consistent with AI assistance.
