A brand-new horror novel, Shy Girl by Mia Ballard, has been recalled from publication due to evidence that it was allegedly generated by AI and not written by the author. This news comes after several months of online discussion questioning the origins of the horror novel.
Publishing house Hachette Book Group announced on March 19 that it would not be moving forward with the book's publication, citing concerns about its origins.
Where did the accusations of AI usage come from?
The allegations were first raised by Redditor u/herendethelesson, who posted a lengthy explanation of their experience in reading and learning the idiosyncrasies of LLMs such as ChatGPT, as well as authors' voices in their own writing styles.
They shared some of the repetitions seen in generated prose, including lists, scents, and em-dashes that the LLMs so commonly rely on—though of course, the training texts for those models came from somewhere, and there are plenty of writers who use the prosy writing and em-dashes. Still, the combination of all of these red flags made the Redditor question the origins of Shy Girl, and other people online started to take notice.
"I'm fascinated by this, I have to admit. This is the first public, big, *obvious* AI novel. How the publishers handle this, how the public responds to this, will possibly have real ramifications. How do you feel about the LLM-ification of art and entertainment?" u/herendethelesson asked.
YouTuber frankie's shelf released a 2:40-long video review of Shy Girl, breaking down the writing style and calling the book "AI slop." Ballard herself responded to the video in the comments, claiming that she had used a new editor and that they must have run it through AI to edit the book.
Commenters on Reddit said that if that were the case, surely she would have rejected extreme changes to her writing style. The author also never put a name to the accusation, leading many to believe that it wasn't true.
In the end, it seems, there was enough evidence of Ballard's alleged use of AI in writing the book that Hachette decided to drop the book's release in the U.S. and stop publication of the book in the U.K., where it was already released.
Readers are relieved to hear the book was canceled
Comments about the news were largely those of relief that some part of the publishing industry was pushing back against AI-generated content.
Redditor u/FatherGwyon wrote, "Glad to hear this. Her AI use is so obvious. It would be insulting to publish it and expect people to pay for it."
u/Kcoin wrote, "Really curious how this slipped through the cracks when the Goodreads reviewers were all over it. And now it looks like it’s been removed from Goodreads."
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byu/jellyrollo from discussion
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"i NEED everyone who is unaware to know that the word 'sharp' was used 186 times in this book," u/EnvironmentalBit4867 added. "not like different synonyms of sharp. just the word sharp. 186 times."
u/Bionic_Bromando joked, "Publishers should just build offices with typewriters and say hey if you wanna be published you gotta type it in here. Also it’s a faraday cage."
Hachette Book Group did not respond immediately to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email.
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