Literary scandals have been with us since Christopher Marlowe got sassy in a sketchy pub, and no doubt for centuries before. And this week, one almighty scandal erupted into the mainstream media (I confess that before this week, I hadn't noticed it bubbling away). At the same time as another literary brouhaha released its latest chapter (in which it turns out the author of the allegedly less-than-accurate memoir “The Salt Path” had actually published beforehand under a different name and was therefore not entitled to the debut prize that launched the book), publishing giant Hachette pulled one of its books from shelves after AI claims.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
The most entertaining, and most illuminating, account of the sorry affair of “Shy Girl” comes as so often from Mark Williams. The horror novel “Shy Girl” was originally self-published by Mia Ballard last year. The book did so well that it was picked up by Hachette. Then the trouble started. Reader-driven speculation grew about the potential use of ChatGPT. Hachette withdrew the title from the UK where it had already been released and shelved the US release.
Author Sues Hachette
But the story doesn't end there. Ballard insists she didn't use AI and seems to be claiming any AI use must have crept in through an editor she used. She is now suing Hachette.
Williams has some great observations. I will let you read them there. I have a couple. First, as a very amateur athlete, this is a sadly familiar story from another world I love. Replace author with athlete and editor with coach, and this is the story of pretty much every doping scandal in the past half-century. It raises the same serious questions about who is responsible for what kind of diligence in the whole process. Because whatever actually turns out to be the case, the public disgrace lands with the author/athlete. Something for all of us as indies in particular to bear in mind.
Questions about AI Detection
Second, this is a book that was self-published in February 2025. More than a year ago. A year in which AI has improved immensely. If it was written using AI prior to that, well, there's something there about the levels we have reached.
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