I wouldn't blindly trust a brand new author in 2026, but it's very easy to trust an author that has put out good writing in years past. Not hard to find, there has been plenty of great books written after 2023.

New authors however will certainly have to earn trust for a few years now I think.

It's similar with music, if someone puts out their first album in 2026 and has no singles or EPs, no YouTube presence, etc., it's probably slop. If they have a body of work that goes back a few years, easy to trust.

Why does it matter whether the writing is AI generated or not?

You should always be critical of everything you read. I have stopped reading plenty of books after a few chapters when I realized there was little value in it for me.

self-evident quality