The Hachette Book Group, one of the largest publishers in the United States, has decided to withdraw the horror novel "Shy Girl" from the market. This decision came amid numerous accusations against the author Mia Ballard regarding the alleged use of artificial intelligence in the writing process, as reported by a correspondent from Kazinform in Washington.
According to information from The New York Times, this decision is related to the publisher's intention to "protect original creative expression and the art of storytelling." As a result, the book has been removed from Amazon and the official Hachette website in the USA.
Additionally, Hachette announced that it will not publish the novel in the UK, where it was already released last fall and managed to sell 1,800 copies, according to NielsenIQ BookData.
Mia Ballard has faced criticism for allegedly relying heavily on AI in the writing of her work, according to many.
However, the author herself claims that she did not use artificial intelligence to create the novel. She explained that a friend she hired to edit the self-published version used AI.
“This incident has radically changed my life. My mental health is at rock bottom, and my name is tarnished because of something I did not do,” Ballard wrote, adding that she cannot explain in detail how the editing process with AI took place.
The plot of the novel "Shy Girl" tells the story of a young woman in despair, who is held captive by a man she met online and forced to live as his pet.
The withdrawal from publication highlights an existing issue in the publishing industry, which is becoming increasingly relevant as the use of AI grows.
Traditional publishers are increasingly viewing self-published books as potential bestsellers, especially in genre literature, and are adhering to strict requirements for the originality of texts and images created with AI, demanding authors provide proof of the uniqueness of their works in contracts.
Readers and many writers continue to actively oppose the use of AI for writing texts, considering it cheating or theft. There is a growing awareness of books written with the help of AI, which often contain formulaic metaphors and repetitive phrases.
