According to The Economist, generative artificial intelligence has sharply lowered the barrier to content creation: with a single prompt one can produce articles, program code or manipulated images. As a result, cheaply produced, mass-generated works have flooded the internet, affecting multiple markets and institutions.
Book market: explosive growth on Amazon
Amazon's e-book marketplace is a clear example. Before the launch of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, roughly 100,000 e-books appeared on the platform each month; by the end of 2025 that figure had risen to about 300,000 monthly. Researchers at Cornell University and the University of Minnesota used AI-detection tools to examine titles and concluded that chatbot-generated texts are largely responsible for the growth.
Although books that appear to be AI-written generally receive lower ratings on Amazon, the sheer volume is itself problematic: platform saturation and difficulty identifying genuine quality become real issues.
Law: more filings and a changing role for enforcement
Two U.S. economists found that the number of civil suits filed without legal representation doubled between 2023 and 2025, reaching 41,000. In 2026, 18 percent of submitted pleadings contained text segments produced with AI technology. Notably, the success rate of unrepresented plaintiffs did not decline after the advent of AI use, suggesting the tools can materially assist citizens in enforcing their rights — even as the increased case load strains courts.
Science: faster publishing but an overload of manuscripts
The trend appears in scientific publishing as well. A recent study found that 57 percent of scientific papers published in 2025 included language indicative of artificial intelligence, compared with 12 percent in 2023. While researchers can write and disseminate results more quickly, there is growing concern in academic circles about the proliferation of low-quality or meaningless manuscripts that can cripple the peer review process.
Software development: "vibe coding" and more apps in the App Store
In software, so-called "vibe coding" enables the creation of complex applications without deep programming knowledge. Monthly uploads to the Apple iOS App Store have surged since 2025: from under 50,000 in May of last year to more than 100,000 per month today. This spike coincides with the emergence of AI models designed for code generation, such as Claude Code and Codex.
Music industry: tens of thousands of AI songs every day
Deezer estimates that around 75,000 AI-generated tracks are uploaded to its platform daily; in January 2025 that number was about 10,000. AI-produced works constitute 44 percent of newly uploaded tracks. Deezer's survey indicates that 97 percent of listeners cannot reliably distinguish machine-generated music from songs made by human artists. Although users in principle prefer human-created content, in practice many cannot tell the difference.
Consequences and institutional pressure
These shifts are putting pressure on institutions: the rise in unrepresented legal filings strains courts, the flood of scientific submissions impairs peer review, and the mass production of low-effort content risks devaluing intellectual goods overall. This makes moderation, authenticity verification and regulatory responses increasingly important across digital content markets.
Summary
Since 2022, the spread of generative AI tools has accelerated content production across cultural and economic sectors — from e-books and apps to legal pleadings and music. The increased volume democratizes creation and can help individuals (for example, in legal enforcement), but it also raises institutional stresses and questions about the long-term value and trustworthiness of mass-produced intellectual works.
