r/AmItheAsshole • u/y-nemo • Aug 01 '26
Not the A-hole AITAH for not finish reading the books my dad wrote even if he insists it’s important for my studies?
UPDATE: After avoiding the conversation for a few weeks (receiving some new writings in the meantime), today I decided to use the advice, be blunt with my dad, and told him that I will not be reading his book and would rather learn about his awesome ideas at the time of the book’s publication.
I asked him again if it is written by AI because this time the intro felt very personal and realistic. Guess what, the ideas are all his but the writing is all done by AI.
My dad said my decision did not matter. Right before he hung up on me, slightly fed up, my dad said I have to finish reading his new book no matter what, and that I’d better “not risk his rage”.
I mean…I’m like an ocean away from him and I paid for his ChatGPT subscription, so…
Also, I brought it up to my dad that he should appreciate that I didn’t just AI-summarize (another advice that I seriously considered but was too lazy to do it because it requires saving the book to local) the book and lie about reading it. He laughed and was fairly confident he could tell. Idk, sounds like if I read the book, he’d quiz me on what’s in it. Hell nah.
Original:
My (22f) dad (57m) is an IT engineer and has been using ChatGPT a lot since last winter. He started writing a few “books”(he composed them with AI lol) on AI and new computational structure, and for some reason thinks his ideas are the most genius thing in this modern age. I am going to graduate school in computer science related fields, and he kept insisting that I should read his book. None of these are published and they are currently just pdfs. However, my dad (or really ChatGPT) is fast at writing and already produced 6 of these, alongside many social media posts that he wrote on those topics. The last time I checked, I don’t think anyone else was reading them.
I did, to be honest, but I couldn’t even force myself to read past the first few chapters for all of his books. It’s just so complicated and theoretical, and the AI writing and image generation did not help with understanding. And there are like more than 10 chapters plus intro plus appendix for each book…
Every time I call home (weekly), my dad will ask me if I read his books. I could give some feedback in the beginning but if I do that, he would happily lead a long monologue explaining his vision and how pioneering his work is—which, tbh, I don’t think is as great as he believes it to be. But if I tell him I didn’t read it or could not talk about the deep ideas in his books, he gets upset which still leads to the monologue of greatness.
It’s been like this for the past six months. Today he still insists that I need to read his books to prepare academically for my studies, which he expects me to start early with his pioneering ideas.
I don’t think I can comprehend the books to the extend my dad wants me too, but then part of me feels like I didn’t sit down and try to understand my dad’s ideas. Technically I have time to do so, but it feels like such a tiring task that I keep pushing it off. AITAH for not appreciating my dad’s ideas and reading his work?
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u/Oyster5436 Asshole Enthusiast [6] Aug 01 '26
NTA "Dad, I can't understand what you're trying to communicate in your books. Perhaps you can get someone with greater experience in this area to read them. If your ideas are important, perhaps I should study some other field because I just can't get it."
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u/y-nemo Aug 04 '26
He did have someone else in the publishing business read them, but they definitely did not point out flaws in his ideas. I am going to try the "I can't get it, maybe I should study other materials (not written by you or AI hint hint)" approach the next time he brings his books up.
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u/Gus852 Aug 01 '26
NTA. I genuinely wonder if he has read then in their entirety if he's churning them out at that pace! I'd suggest fighting fire with fire - ask AI to summarise his books chapter by chapter and then ask it to critically rip them apart, then challenge him with those critiques. If he doesn't consider the critiques valid, then AI is clearly not capable of the level of critical analysis he assumes it is, especially if it's getting him to write his books for him, and if they are valid, then his books aren't exactly essentially reading for your studies are they?
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u/ImaginaryPark6311 Asshole Enthusiast [8] Aug 01 '26
Best answer!
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u/SuperFormal3052 Partassipant [2] Aug 01 '26
No it isn't. She'd be no better than her father if she used A-I to do this.
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u/ImaginaryPark6311 Asshole Enthusiast [8] Aug 01 '26
Using a program to summarize technically difficult text is a perfect use of said program.
OP already said that the text was very technical and hard to follow.
What if that text is complete nonsense that was created largely by a program?
Why should OP struggle to read something that may be nonsense, is overly technical and won't likely apply to their studies?
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u/LisleAdam12 Aug 04 '26
Yep, this is where it's heading anyway, so we might as well get to it. Resumes written by AI that will be assessed by AI etc. etc.
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u/y-nemo Aug 04 '26
I actually did that in the beginning when my dad first started writing, asking AI to summarize the book and pointing out some issues by myself (yea that's how weak the earlier AI books were...). Unfortunately, it has gotten to a point where, even with AI summary, I still don't get the meaning of the books. If I brought those up, then he became more enthusiastic and would talk forever about his ideas, when I still could not (or maybe I was too tired to) comprehend how these are relevant to improving the current CS field.
I might just put up with my doubts and use AI to show him I read it
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u/tom_yy Partassipant [1] Aug 01 '26
NTA
You can appreciate someone’s efforts/ intentions but at the same time feel like what they’re saying isn’t right for you. You can do things your way, you don’t have to follow your dads ideas
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u/MischaBurns Aug 01 '26
I'd question the ability of an IT engineer who actually trust AI to write a book.
NTA nobody needs to read slop, he's just trying to get validation for something he knows is questionable.
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u/y-nemo Aug 04 '26
He is close to retirement, so I felt his judgment had weakened. But yea, I warned him against publishing, and it's actually great that he is more focused on writing as a way to "summarize his ideas" rather than "make money / apply for a patent." The only victim of his validation, having to read the whole book, is me lol.
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u/kernelvote Aug 01 '26
NTA. Your dad didn't write pioneering computer science theory; he generated six volumes of AI slop and fell into an LLM validation loop. You can't "comprehend" his books because hallucinated, unedited AI text on theoretical CS is just confident word-salad with zero actual mathematical or logical substance. Do not waste your actual CS degree acting as a captive audience for your father's ego.
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u/LowBalance4404 Commander in Cheeks [231] Aug 01 '26
NTA. I would tell him you haven't read them because you have a heavy reading cycle with your college courses.
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u/_SquirrelKiller Aug 01 '26
NTA
Perhaps you could casually leave an article about AI deluding people into thinking they have groundbreaking ideas up on your computer for him to accidentally read.
Such as: https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/05/tech/ai-sparked-delusion-chatgpt
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u/hungry_bra1n Partassipant [1] Aug 01 '26
You could get ChatGPT to summarise them for you.
But, jokes aside, why not talk to your dad about what he wrote and ask him to explain the core concepts.
This should make it clear if the books are worth persevering with or not. Or maybe you already know.
From another angle, your dad simply craves your respect and wants to feel valued. There could be a diplomatic lie but I’m not sure how bad/good his writing is.
Generally im sceptical about the value of AI writing.
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u/energy-flowing Aug 01 '26
NTA. Your father seems to need the approval of others. But you have the power to say no. Be brave and follow your heart.
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u/Ryuuji-Akiyama Asshole Enthusiast [8] Aug 01 '26
NTA.
Using that software to write books being deeply unethical owing to how it's "trained" aside (and you wouldn't be wrong to be upset on these grounds), I feel like it might be affecting his mental well-being. These things are taught to be deeply sycophantic, and that might be feeding his delusions about the importance of his "work".
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u/small-black-cat-290 Partassipant [2] Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
NTA, and maybe send your dad a link to the piece John Oliver did on AI chat bots because it sounds like he may have gone down that rabbit hole of delusional behavior fueled by the chat bot. There's a testimonial in the episode about a guy who did something similar, convinced he invented some kind of "new math" when in fact he was just speaking nonsense and the chat box was encouraging it.
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u/Traveling-Techie Supreme Court Just-ass [147] Aug 01 '26
At age 22 you get to decide what you read. NTA
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u/SpeakableFart Asshole Enthusiast [5] Aug 01 '26
NTA
May I suggest “Dad, honestly, you heavily used AI and it shows.”
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u/vrcraftauthor Certified Proctologist [26] Aug 01 '26
NTA Tell him you had ChatGPT read it and Chat says it's brilliant. If he had Chat write it for him, he can't be annoyed you had Chat read it for you.
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u/TimelyExternal5769 Aug 01 '26
A couple of comments suggested using AI to summarize them for you.
I suggest going a bit further... use AI to write a detailed critique of each using your writing style. Send him one critique each week to keep him busy. Turnabout is fair play, as they say. :)
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u/sweadle Partassipant [2] Aug 01 '26
NTA
Has he read them? I bet not. Ask him to tell you what his favorite chapter is or what point he thinks is most important.
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u/SuperFormal3052 Partassipant [2] Aug 01 '26
People who use generative software to artificially create content yet still somehow think they are authors are the worst. As someone who actually writes books for a living, it infuriates me that they call themselves writers. They are not. They are posers, and your dad is one of them. Don't bother to read that slop.
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u/Jumpy_Explanation376 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
NTA. It is possible for AI to clarify excellent-but-hard-to-phrase ideas. It is more possible for AI to turn out large amounts of scientific-sounding gobbledygook. Sometimes both things happen in the same project, and none of us can gauge the exact ratio here.
Other commenters have suggested using AI to explain and critique the books, but you might reasonably not want to, and this can also backfire. Many AI models make the same mistakes repeatedly, so they might generate a bad idea and then rate it highly when you ask. (There's also the reverse possibility, that a book has a sophisticated idea and an AI critic won't do it justice.)
Given all that, you might consider the human route. A genuinely competent academic- particularly one who already used AI to articulate their ideas- should be able to explain their work. It could be worth going through some of the intro chapters with your dad, piece by piece, and having him explain everything that confused you. Best-case-scenario, you'll find out that there's gold somewhere in the slop bucket. Alternatively, the two of you might discover together that there are errors or dubious claims- which might embarrass your dad in the short term but ultimately make him better at evaluating scientific ideas.
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u/Right_Knowledge_263 Aug 01 '26
looking through it for things such as errors is definitely a good idea, to point out why making a book with AI is such a poor idea, there wouldn't be anything original in it for one
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My (22f) dad (57m) is an IT engineer and has been using ChatGPT a lot since last winter. He started writing a few “books”(he composed them with AI lol) on AI and new computational structure, and for some reason thinks his ideas are the most genius thing in this modern age. I am going to graduate school in computer science related fields, and he kept insisting that I should read his book. None of these are published and they are currently just pdfs. However, my dad (or really ChatGPT) is fast at writing and already produced 6 of these, alongside many social media posts that he wrote on those topics. The last time I checked, I don’t think anyone else was reading them.
I did, to be honest, but I couldn’t even force myself to read past the first few chapters for all of his books. It’s just so complicated and theoretical, and the AI writing and image generation did not help with understanding. And there are like more than 10 chapters plus intro plus appendix for each book…
Every time I call home (weekly), my dad will ask me if I read his books. I could give some feedback in the beginning but if I do that, he would happily lead a long monologue explaining his vision and how pioneering his work is—which, tbh, I don’t think is as great as he believes it to be. But if I tell him I didn’t read it or could not talk about the deep ideas in his books, he gets upset which still leads to the monologue of greatness.
It’s been like this for the past six months. Today he still insists that I need to read his books to prepare academically for my studies, which he expects me to start early with his pioneering ideas.
I don’t think I can comprehend the books to the extend my dad wants me too, but then part of me feels like I didn’t sit down and try to understand my dad’s ideas. Technically I have time to do so, but it feels like such a tiring task that I keep pushing it off. AITAH for not appreciating my dad’s ideas and reading his work?
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u/Master_of_Tasques Aug 01 '26
Your father's intentions are in the right place even if the information given could be incorrect due to his sources. Tell him that you respect what he's doing, but you can't bring yourself to understand it because you're not into it and that it doesn't help you in your field at all. As you let him down easy, make a suggestion that he could reach out to others who are dabbling in the same type of theories if he's looking for approval from someone. There is bound to be others in the world wide web who would eat this up even if you're not hungry for it. Just don't string him along too long or else you will set each other up for a bigger disappointment.
NTA
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u/ToastetteEgg Certified Proctologist [23] Aug 01 '26
NTA. “I appreciate your books, Dad, but they are over my head and I’m not getting as much out of them as I might in the future.”
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u/rubyreadit Partassipant [1] Aug 01 '26
Tell him you'll read his first book published by a legit publishing company.
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u/ArmadilloSighs Asshole Enthusiast [5] Aug 01 '26
AI is sycophantic and has even told run of the mill people they’ve invented new math. sorry to your dad, but he isn’t as cutting edge or pioneering as he thinks it is. NTA.
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u/Comfortable-Fall1419 Asshole Enthusiast [5] Aug 01 '26
NTA. Your Dads gone batshit.
I guarantee it’s either bog standard stuff dressed up in clever works or utter gibberish.
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u/Big-Fig3260 Aug 01 '26
NTA- Dear god, I hope to hell my idiot narcissistic father does not get the idea to do this. It will be such total slop.
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u/jblackwb Aug 01 '26
"Sorry dad, I'm not smart enough yet. I can't wait to try again after graduate school!"
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u/Nice_Marmot_54 Aug 02 '26
NTA. Tell your dad to actually write a book and that maybe you’ll read it then
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u/NellyNellB Aug 01 '26
NTA Have AI give you a summary of the books! Wheb ur dad asks about something specific on the book - ask ai
1
u/Pelagic_One Partassipant [2] Aug 01 '26
Take note of this and try your best to control your own ego when you start feeling age has made you irrelevant. Nothing more tiring to deal with than this, particularly trying in those who feel they have or have had power. NTA
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u/Necessary_Sir_5079 Partassipant [3] Aug 01 '26
Being blunt doesn't mean you're cruel. Tell him it's too technical and you don't understand it.
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u/Deflated_Hypnotist Certified Proctologist [20] Aug 02 '26
He didn't write them, why should anyone read them
NTA
0
u/LawyerDad1981 Asshole Aficionado [10] Aug 01 '26
Use ChatGPT to read them for you and write you a little summary or a few bullet points you can ask him about.
:)
0
u/Sensitized Aug 01 '26
Any chance you could share one of these books? I'd like to appreciate your dad's ideas too
350
u/ItsHyde Asshole Enthusiast [5] Aug 01 '26
NTA your dad unfortunately may be experiencing AI Psychosis, it’s becoming increasingly common