LLM-generated book indexes: can they replace professionally created indexes?

Book indexes allow readers to quickly access the information they seek. Necessary criteria for a book index include completeness (an index must guide the reader to all indexable information in the book), navigability (an index must guide the reader to subtopics and related topics), and accuracy (an index should not contain false or inaccurate information and should reflect the author’s terminology). This article reports on an investigation into whether artificial intelligence (AI) based on large language models (LLMs) is capable of providing indexes that meet these criteria; these LLMs were found to fall far short. At this time, AI cannot replace professional book indexers and it is doubtful that it will be able to do so soon, or even at all.