For generations, Koreans have regarded books as the most reliable form of information. They're slower than social media, but more carefully made and more accountable. That basic trust is now under strain as generative artificial intelligence (AI) quietly fills bookstores and e-book platforms with nonfiction titles on self-help, money management and other popular topics, often with little transparency about who — or what — wrote them. The rapid spread of AI-generated books forces an uncomfortable question: When you pick up a book in Korea today, how sure can you be that a human mind stands behind it? Quantity over quality That question already has an answer visible on the shelves. In brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries, readers are running into titles that feature tables of contents that look plausible at first glance, but open to pages with unnatural phrasing and uncanny images that bear little relation to the text. On online storefronts, the pattern becomes even clearer. Many covers have eerily similar artwork with auto-generated titles, and some small, unknown publishers are