I use AI to compile lists of current bestsellers in different Hispanic countries for me. Also, I ask it to find books similar to certain other books. About 1 in 8 suggestions are completely invented. Non-existent books, imaginary authors.
Last week I asked it to find a scholarly article on a certain subject. It gave me a list of five and the first two were messed up. I didn’t look at the rest because I felt I was wasting time.
Another problem is that it ignores my prompts. For example, I say, “I need a list of bestsellers in Peru, Spanish-language only, not translations.” The result I get starts with two translated books, and the AI acknowledges it. “I know you said you didn’t want translations but here are two excellent novels that are translated.”
It’s fine, it’s still helpful enough. I did find an interesting Peruvian novel with AI help yesterday. But the point I’m making is I thought AI would start substituting doctors because it can diagnose. But this amount of invented crap among helpful things? You can’t have that in medicine. It’s not occasional, it’s systematic.
I don’t understand how it works at all, so maybe it’s that I’m simply not getting it.
Clarissa's Blog 
It’s an extra fancy autocomplete algorithm, of course it’s going to imagine things
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The punchline is that it autocompletes not just a sentence, but a model of the world. It imagines books, people, and events that never existed, because their existence is plausible, given everything else it has seen. It’s the “coherence theory of truth” in action.
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That sounds just about right. It’s like a scatterbrained, gregarious fantasist with narcissistic tendencies.
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“a scatterbrained, gregarious fantasist with narcissistic tendencies”
Reminds me of this….
https://x.com/booktycoon/status/1952782881023246597
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That’s a brilliant text. Those of us who have dealt with narcissists immediately recognize the description.
“what triggers narcissists to enter their psychotic / collapsed phase. Their grandiose self-image, sustained since infancy, is deprived of reinforcement, and their inchoate personality (permanently frozen in a pre-individuated state) is brought into rare confrontation with something outside itself. But the narcissist, like the psychotic, makes no real distinction between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’—their fragmented and indistinct self, shaken from its narrative binding, indiscriminately fuses with new inputs”
Yes. Couldn’t be said any better.
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you’re using the wrong model – they serve different purposes; next time I call you I’ll tell you. – M
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I’m just posting this to see if the AI that I use makes those same mistakes. I’m posting the AI answer that has been translated, I can get the original answer in Spanish again if you want it.
Here are some notable references to the best-selling books in Peru, in Spanish and avoiding English translations:
Sources for current bestseller lists
The Buscalibre website provides a ranking of the best-sellers in Peru. The titles listed include:
Globalism: Social Engineering and Total Control in the 21st Century — Agustín Laje (2024)Buscalibre
The Revelation: Lost Souls 1 — Ariana Godoy (2023)
Buscalibre
INVITATION TO THE JOURNEY AND OTHER UNPUBLISHED STORIES — Julio Ramón Ribeyro (2024)
Buscalibre
There are also classics like The Green House by Mario Vargas Llosa.
Buscalibre
These figures reflect recent sales trends, although they do not always differentiate between works originally in Spanish and translations.
Common Recommendations and Peruvian Classics (in Spanish)
Due to their great cultural influence—even if they are not currently bestsellers—many readers and communities highlight emblematic works written by Peruvian authors in Spanish:
Contemporary Novels and Peruvian Fiction:
The Green House, The City and the Dogs, or Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Greatest Books
+1
Deep Rivers (Los ríos profundos) by José María Arguedas, a pioneer of indigenismo in Peruvian literature
Wikipedia
All the Bloods by Arguedas, an extensive look at the diversity and problems of Andean Peru
Wikipedia
Avant-garde Poetry:
Trilce by César Vallejo, originally published in Spanish, is considered one of the greatest achievements of modern poetry
Wikipedia
Historical or identity-based works:
Royal Commentaries on the Incas by Garcilaso de la Vega, an early chronicle of the Inca Empire, written in Spanish.
Wikipedia
Combined list suggestion
For a selection that combines recent bestsellers and Peruvian classics in Spanish, here is a useful option:
Globalism: Social Engineering and Total Control in the 21st Century — Agustín Laje
The Revelation. Lost Souls 1 — Ariana Godoy
INVITATION TO THE JOURNEY AND OTHER UNPUBLISHED STORIES — Julio Ramón Ribeyro
The Green House — Mario Vargas Llosa
Deep Rivers (Los ríos profundos) — José María Arguedas
All the Bloods — José María Arguedas
Trilce — César Vallejo
Royal Commentaries of the Incas — Garcilaso de la Vega
If you’d like a more precise approach—for example, recent weeks of sales, fiction only, emerging Peruvian authors, etc.—I can help you refine the criteria or find additional sources. Would you like to explore a particular category?
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Yours are worst than mine because at least mine gave me actual recent novels instead of providing the reading list in a 1990 college program.
Most of what it gave you is not a current bestseller. These are great books, I’ve read them all but the search was for current stuff. It’s so frustrating to ask for one thing and receive a long rant about something completely different. Trilce was published over 100 years ago! Honestly.
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Yep! And Garcilaso de la Vega, that must be late sixteenth or early seventeenth century!
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Exactly. Every time when I ask about recent Spanish novels, I get a lecture on the importance of Cervantes. Which, given my profession, is very annoying.
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