AI-assisted vs AI-generated on KDP: what's the difference, with examples

What KDP means by each term

Amazon publishes the line in its Content Guidelines, under "Artificial intelligence (AI) content (text, images, or translations)". We read that page on 21 October 2026. The guidelines say:

"We require you to inform us of AI-generated content (text, images, or translations) when you publish a new book or make edits to and republish an existing book through KDP. AI-generated images include cover and interior images and artwork. You are not required to disclose AI-assisted content."

They then define the two terms. AI-generated:

"We define AI-generated content as text, images, or translations created by an AI-based tool. If you used an AI-based tool to create the actual content (whether text, images, or translations), it is considered "AI-generated," even if you applied substantial edits afterwards."

AI-assisted:

"If you created the content yourself, and used AI-based tools to edit, refine, error-check, or otherwise improve that content (whether text or images), then it is considered "AI-assisted" and not "AI-generated." Similarly, if you used an AI-based tool to brainstorm and generate ideas, but ultimately created the text or images yourself, this is also considered "AI-assisted" and not "AI-generated." It is not necessary to inform us of the use of such tools or processes."

Read that as a question about the first creation of whatever ends up in the file you upload. If you made the sentences or the pictures, and a tool only polished them or tossed you ideas you then wrote yourself, KDP calls it AI-assisted. If a tool produced the sentences, the pictures, or the translation, KDP calls it AI-generated. Editing afterwards does not move it into the other bucket.

Either way, the book still has to follow the rest of the rules. The same section says: "You are responsible for verifying that all AI-generated and/or AI-assisted content adheres to all content guidelines, including by complying with all applicable intellectual property rights." Telling Amazon which bucket you are in is not a substitute for that.

Eight examples, sorted

These are ordinary situations, sorted with the definitions above. They are not the choices on the form. Amazon does not publish that menu. If your book is a mix, the part a tool created is AI-generated even when the rest is yours.

AI-assisted: you made it, and a tool only helped

You do not have to disclose these. You created the content. The tool did not.

1. A grammar pass on a chapter you wrote. You wrote a chapter of a novel. You pasted it into an AI tool and asked it to fix spelling, grammar, and a few awkward sentences. You checked each change, and the chapter is still your writing. That is editing and refining. It is AI-assisted.
2. Ideas you then wrote yourself. You asked an AI tool for ten possible chapter titles for a business book, kept two that fit, and wrote every chapter from your own notes and experience. The tool never produced the text of the book. Brainstorming, when you create the text yourself, is AI-assisted.
3. A note on poems you wrote, which you then rewrote. You wrote a poetry collection yourself. You asked a tool to flag lines that did not scan, then you rewrote those lines. The poems in the book are yours. That is AI-assisted.
4. Your own drawings, with a tool used only on words you wrote. You drew the pictures for a picture book and wrote the words. You used an AI tool to catch typos in that text, and you did not ask it to draw or replace any picture. The words and the pictures are yours. That is AI-assisted. If the tool drew a picture you then used, that picture belongs in the next list.

AI-generated: a tool created the content

You have to inform KDP about these, including when you edited them a lot afterwards.

5. A novel the tool drafted, which you then rewrote. An AI tool wrote the chapters. You changed the ending, cut two subplots, rewrote dialogue, and fixed names. The tool created the actual text. KDP still calls that AI-generated, "even if you applied substantial edits afterwards."
6. A cover the tool drew. You wrote the book yourself, and an AI tool created the cover image. You cropped it and added your title and pen name. KDP says AI-generated images include "cover and interior images and artwork." The cover is AI-generated. The prose, if you wrote it, is not. You disclose the images.
7. Pictures inside a picture book, a comic, or a coloring book. An AI tool drew the pictures inside the book, whether or not you wrote the words. Interior images and artwork are in the definition, so those pictures are AI-generated. Line art in a coloring book counts the same way when a tool drew it.
8. A translation the tool produced. You wrote the book, and an AI tool produced the translation you are uploading, even if you corrected sentences afterwards. A translation created by an AI-based tool is AI-generated. A translation you made yourself, with a tool only checking spelling, is AI-assisted.

One mixed case is worth naming so the line stays sharp. You wrote most of a book, and a tool wrote one chapter that you kept, with light edits. That chapter is AI-generated text, because the tool created actual content that is in the book. Calling the whole book AI-assisted, because you wrote the other chapters, does not match the definition. You inform KDP about the text.

What you have to disclose, and where

Disclose AI-generated content. Do not disclose content that is only AI-assisted. Amazon says both of those in the guidelines quoted above. The things you inform them about are text, images, and translations. Images include the cover and the pictures inside the book.

You do it when you publish a new book, and again when you "make edits to and republish an existing book through KDP." A revised manuscript or a new cover is a moment to check the answers against the files you are uploading now. If the form asks again for another format of the same book, answer it there too.

The questions sit on the book's Content page in KDP. We read that on a live KDP Content page on 9 September 2026: the page asks about text, images, and translation as separate questions. Amazon's public guidelines do not print a click-by-click of that screen, and they do not publish the answer choices outside the form. If the page in front of you reads differently, the form wins.

What to select, which tool name to type, and how a heavy edit changes the wording of your answer are in the KDP AI disclosure guide. The rest of a listing — account, files, and price — is in how to publish an AI-written book on Amazon KDP.

The KDP answer is a field for Amazon. It is not the same thing as a sentence inside the book. The disclosure guide explains that split. Disclosure is not a promise that the book will sell, and Amazon still applies the rest of its content guidelines, including intellectual property.

Why every Shadow Writer book is AI-generated

Shadow Writer, at shadowwriter-ai.com, writes the book. The drafting model creates the actual text: the chapters of a novel or a novella. The cover-art model creates the cover art when you use a cover made here. Children's books, business books, poetry, picture books, comics, coloring books, gaming books and puzzle books are coming soon. When picture books, comics and coloring books launch, the pictures inside will be created too, not only the cover.

That is Amazon's test. The tool created the actual content. Editing it afterwards, even a lot, does not make it AI-assisted. AI-assisted is the other situation: you created the content, and a tool only edited, refined, error-checked, or brainstormed. A book written here is not that situation.

So when you publish a Shadow Writer novel or novella on KDP, you disclose it as AI-generated. Children's books, business books, poetry, picture books, comics, coloring books, gaming books and puzzle books are coming soon. When they launch, you disclose those the same way. When picture books, comics and coloring books launch, the pictures inside will be created too. A book you start on the site is written in English (English today, with Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and German coming soon), so the manuscript itself is not a translation. If you later translate that book with another tool and publish the translation, that translation is its own disclosure, and you answer from the tool that produced it. When gaming books launch, a gaming book here will be a world you invent or a homebrew tabletop RPG, not a guide to a commercial game.

Other stores use their own labels. Where to sell an AI-written book besides KDP compares those labels. That page covers store rules. It does not change KDP's definitions.

A simple way to sort the book in front of you

Use three questions, in order, on the files you are about to upload.

1. Did a tool create any of the text that is in the book? If yes, the text is AI-generated, even if you rewrote a lot of it. If you wrote every sentence and the tool only suggested edits or ideas you then wrote yourself, the text is AI-assisted.
2. Did a tool create any image on the cover or inside the book? If yes, those images are AI-generated. Cropping, lettering, and color tweaks do not change that. If you drew, photographed, or commissioned every image from a person, and a tool only helped you edit files you made, the images are AI-assisted.
3. Did a tool produce a translation you are publishing? If yes, the translation is AI-generated. If you translated it yourself, it is not.

A book can be AI-generated in one of those three and not the others. A novel you wrote, with a cover a tool drew, is AI-generated for the images and not for the text. Answer for the files you upload. For a Shadow Writer book, start from AI-generated, then use the disclosure guide for the form's own choices.

Where this comes from

Checked October 2026. Amazon's definitions of AI-generated and AI-assisted content, the republish rule, the note that images include cover and interior artwork, and the line that you are not required to disclose AI-assisted content are quoted from the Amazon KDP Content Guidelines, section "Artificial intelligence (AI) content", as read on 21 October 2026. The Content page, and the separate text, images, and translation questions, were read from a live KDP Content page on 9 September 2026. Amazon changes its wording. Read the questions on your own Content page and answer those. Shadow Writer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon.

Not legal advice. This article is general information about KDP's published definitions, not legal advice.

Last updated 21 October 2026.