I get your sentiment, though the problem is older than AI, the convenience and market penetration has just ramped up the visibility in this arena.
Many books pre-ai were garbage but not at the rate they could be today. If anything people operate on greater discretion now than in the past because even the worst garbage still had a non-trivial barrier to entry, either sitting down to regurgitate your own garbage or paying someone to make some garbage for you.
There's also some historic precedence of this, the rise of Photoshop/CG and digital manipulation certainly led to a "is this photo real" to similar effect despite manipulations going back to the origins of photography. That acute concern was not as prevalent in my mind before editing became common and accessible.
Many books pre-ai were garbage but not at the rate they could be today. If anything people operate on greater discretion now than in the past because even the worst garbage still had a non-trivial barrier to entry, either sitting down to regurgitate your own garbage or paying someone to make some garbage for you.
There's also some historic precedence of this, the rise of Photoshop/CG and digital manipulation certainly led to a "is this photo real" to similar effect despite manipulations going back to the origins of photography. That acute concern was not as prevalent in my mind before editing became common and accessible.