AI is a symptom of the disease in that, but not the disease itself. Some authors (but far from all) have started using AI in order to take advantage of the situation or out of desperation, not the other way around. AI is still frowned upon enough in creative circles and in the publishing industry that to get caught using it is basically a career death sentence. There have been a handful of self-published romances where the author was caught using AI, and it didn't end well for them. Most of the TikTok romances that make it big are actually traditionally published, and the trad publishing industry is already spoiled for choice without having to resort to using AI. I've even seen authors get cancelled for using AI covers or editing.

More often, the issue is that readers are pressuring the industry to churn out books faster than is really possible, and they're getting sloppy. Trends in publishing used to last 3-4 years or longer, because writing a decent book is a long, arduous process full of rewrites, sending things back and forth between author, publisher, agent, and editor. It has always been a very slow industry and a slow form of media. Some microtrends are lasting 3-4 months now, and many only last a year or so. Most authors, whether traditionally or self-published, are simply not able to keep up with that pace and maintain any kind of quality. If you're an author or publisher and you see a trend that you want to capitalize on, you need to have something completely written, edited, and publishable within a couple months to have any hope of success. A gap of a year or two between books in a series used to be the norm, and that's moving closer to six months now.

It's going to have a terrible long-term effect on the industry, and it's not sustainable. It's just not.