Suspected AI publisher sold books under a different name

In recent weeks, the book publisher Bokum has faced accusations that their roughly 840 translations of classics are made with AI, and criticism that the publisher distorts literature. For example, for his "modernizations" of works by authors such as Karin Boye and August Strindberg.

The works are ones where the copyright has expired, but the approach could violate the protection of classics according to the Authors' Association.

Bokum's e-books were available at major retailers and platforms, such as Adlibris, Storytel, Bookbeat and Bokus. After the criticism, they chose to remove the titles. On Bokum's website it now only says that it should be updated. However, the titles are still available in public libraries around the country.

Now DN can tell you that 108 of the titles up until Wednesday were still with Bokus - under a different publishing name.

That publisher is not registered with Libris, which is Sweden's national joint library catalogue. If you look at the ISBN numbers of the titles - to be compared with personal identification numbers for books - it turns out that they are published by the publisher Bokum.

However, the publisher's name is registered as a limited company in the translation industry. The listed company's address is a notorious mail order address in Stockholm. The CEO is a man who, according to his Linkedin, has worked with translation for nearly 30 years. In his profile, he calls the company a translation agency.

When DN contacts Bokus, they remove the titles from their website. Isabel Rodrigo, purchasing and assortment manager Bokusgruppen, replies in an email that the process on their sites is largely automated.

"We do continuous sampling, but do not have the ability to manually go through all individual titles. When we discover or become aware of titles that violate our assortment policy, we immediately remove them," writes Isabel Rodrigo.

DN has applied for the CEO of the limited company.