Podcast
Today, Explained
The episode described the selfpublished horror novel Shy Girl, its later acquisition by Hachette, and the controversy over suspected AIgenerated text that led to the book being pulled.
author called Mia Ballard, an American author, selfpublished a horror novel called Shy Girl.
— Episode: Is it a bad book or is it AI?
Episode: Is it a bad book or is it AI?
The episode described the selfpublished horror novel Shy Girl, its later acquisition by Hachette, and the controversy over suspected AIgenerated text that led to the book being pulled.
author called Mia Ballard, an American author, selfpublished a horror novel called Shy Girl.
Shy Girl by Mia Ballard. Does anyone else think this was written by ChatGPT?
It has this very recognizable and constant rhythmic use of adjectives and similes that stinks of AI.
The New York Times then get involved and decide to run their own little investigation into the book, doing things like putting it through AI detective software and take that to Hachette. Hachette then get off their ass, as it were, and pull the book.
She selfpublishes this book and it's popular among fans of selfpublished horror online. And then what happened was, as often enough happens these days, is that a big traditional publisher, in this case Hachette, will see a selfpublished novel and see that it's popular and decide to then publish it again under the imprint of their own house.