A horror novel has been pulled by publisher Hachette from the UK market over allegations that the book was manufactured with AI. The novel, Shy Girl, was originally self-published and then leapt into full-trade publication before it was pulled in the UK, and all plans to expand to the US market were nixed.
The move from the publisher came after an investigation found that AI had been used in lengthy portions of the text. “Hachette remains committed to protecting original creative expression and storytelling,” a Hachette spokesperson said. The publisher added that all submissions must be original work from the author, and the company asks authors if they are using AI in their novels or not during the writing process.
According to ARS Technica, the novel, based around a character with depression and OCD named Gia, sees the woman encounter a "sugar daddy" who pays off her debts for her. She then lives as his literal pet, and being treated like an animal shifts her to being an animal. Mia Ballard, the author of the novel, has been praised as well as torn apart for the book. She has denied that she used AI to write the novel.
“I’m obsessed with the way Mia Ballard writes,” one reviewer said on Goodreads. But not everyone was in agreement. Another reviewer called the book “absolute f*cking garbage. overwritten, repetitive, poorly executed, atrocious formatting. nothing to do with actual feminine rage and revenge.”
Complaints about the book then accused Ballard of using a chatbot to write the book. Then, in January this year, someone on a Reddit thread claimed it had the hallmark signs of being written by AI.
“If so, I find it repulsive that it has been picked up and published by the second largest publishing company, at least in the UK,” the Reddit post said. “If it isn’t AI, she’s a terrible writer. Her writing is truly indistinguishable from an LLM.”
AI-detection companies also got in on the action. One of them, Pangram, said that the book had the telltale signs of being AI-generated. The New York Times published its own investigation, suggesting that the book was actually written with AI.
The move from the publisher came after an investigation found that AI had been used in lengthy portions of the text. “Hachette remains committed to protecting original creative expression and storytelling,” a Hachette spokesperson said. The publisher added that all submissions must be original work from the author, and the company asks authors if they are using AI in their novels or not during the writing process.
According to ARS Technica, the novel, based around a character with depression and OCD named Gia, sees the woman encounter a "sugar daddy" who pays off her debts for her. She then lives as his literal pet, and being treated like an animal shifts her to being an animal. Mia Ballard, the author of the novel, has been praised as well as torn apart for the book. She has denied that she used AI to write the novel.
“I’m obsessed with the way Mia Ballard writes,” one reviewer said on Goodreads. But not everyone was in agreement. Another reviewer called the book “absolute f*cking garbage. overwritten, repetitive, poorly executed, atrocious formatting. nothing to do with actual feminine rage and revenge.”
Complaints about the book then accused Ballard of using a chatbot to write the book. Then, in January this year, someone on a Reddit thread claimed it had the hallmark signs of being written by AI.
“If so, I find it repulsive that it has been picked up and published by the second largest publishing company, at least in the UK,” the Reddit post said. “If it isn’t AI, she’s a terrible writer. Her writing is truly indistinguishable from an LLM.”
AI-detection companies also got in on the action. One of them, Pangram, said that the book had the telltale signs of being AI-generated. The New York Times published its own investigation, suggesting that the book was actually written with AI.
