The South Korean government has consistently implemented subsidy policies to revitalize the publishing industry, but this has also created loopholes that have been exploited by bad actors, resulting in numerous “one-person publishing houses” that use AI to churn out large quantities of low-quality AI-generated books. Recently, it was exposed that Seoul-based publisher Luminary Books, leveraging AI technology, published approximately 9,000 books alone in 2025 alone, drawing intense industry scrutiny over quality, ethics, and regulatory gaps, prompting various South Korean institutions to consider legislative regulation.
South Korean One-Person Publisher Produces 9,000 Books a Year Using AI, Raking in Over $1 Million in Subsidies by Exploiting Legal Loopholes
According to the Korean Publishers Association, the number of one-person publishers increased from 5,580 in 2019 to 6,800 in 2023. AI technology has enabled micro publishers to produce books on a massive scale at virtually zero cost. Luminary Books was founded in 2022 by an engineer and publishes across topics including economics, humanities, fashion, and food, with all authors listed under generic attributions such as “Luminary Books Educational Publishing Editorial Team,” without clearly identifying the actual writers. These books appear in both physical bookstores and online platforms, and readers who flip through the pages find unnatural phrasing with illustrations that bear almost no connection to the text.
Legal surrender system becomes profit-making tool
Critics say Luminary Books exploited Korea’s “legal deposit system” for profit. Under the system, publishers must submit print and digital copies to the National Library of Korea and the National Assembly Library within 30 days of publication, and the libraries must pay compensation at the book’s list price. When the National Library of Korea began accepting e-book deposits in 2016, it paid only 12.1 million won (approximately 262,000 TWD) in the first five months; by 2024, this figure had surged to 262.7 million won (approximately 5.63 million TWD). In response to the criticism, the National Library of Korea has begun rejecting the 395 e-books submitted by Luminary Books between July and September 2025, citing “insufficient length, mere compilations of publicly available information, and repetitive content,” and has pledged a comprehensive review of its deposit policy.
Luminary Books defends its practices, claiming that AI-generated content is an inevitable trend in the publishing industry, emphasizing that AI has become a practical tool for boosting productivity across various sectors, and pointing out that some best-selling books from well-known publishers also contain substantial amounts of AI-generated text. The Korean Publishers Association’s Executive Director Park Young-soo, however, expressed concern that the rise of generative AI could damage readers’ trust in books.
The industry self-imposes stricter regulations
Some publishers have already started taking action. Communication Books, a publisher specializing in translated classics and non-fiction works, has explicitly stated that AI-generated sentences cannot be directly inserted into manuscripts, otherwise it will be considered plagiarism. Authors using AI as a辅助工具 must disclose this in the preface, and AI cannot be listed as a co-author. Online bookstore Aladin has required publishers to declare whether they used AI since 2025, and displays this information publicly on each book’s product page.
Professor Lee Byung-hoon, a sociology professor at Chung-Ang University in Korea, believes that introducing mandatory disclosure requirements for the extent of AI use could be a viable solution to address the current chaos. The Korean Publishers Association has also discussed drafting an “AI Publishing Ethics Code,” though the relevant proposals have yet to be finalized. Notably, Korea formally implemented a comprehensive AI regulatory framework, the Basic Act on AI, on January 22, 2026, aiming to strengthen public trust and safety, though specific regulations for the publishing industry still need to be developed.
Summary
The Luminary Books incident reveals the regulatory challenges facing the publishing industry in the AI era. When one-person publishers can produce nearly ten thousand books annually at near-zero cost, and when the legal deposit system is being abused as a profit-making tool, the ethical and quality standards of traditional publishing are under unprecedented pressure. The Korean case undoubtedly serves as a wake-up call for the global publishing industry: while embracing AI technology, how to establish effective regulatory mechanisms and industry standards will be an important issue that every country must face.
Source: KOCPC Chinese