Horror Novel 'Shy Girl' Canceled Over Suspected A.I. Use (NYT)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/books/shy-girl-book-ai.html
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On Thursday, a day after The New York Times approached Hachette citing evidence that the novel appeared to be A.I.-generated, the company said it was pulling the book from publication. By Thursday afternoon, the novel was removed from Amazon and the Hachette website.
Hachette told The Times that its Orbit imprint decided not to publish Shy Girl, which was due out in the United States this spring, after conducting a thorough and lengthy review of the text. Hachette said it will also discontinue the book in the U.K., where it was published last fall and has sold 1,800 print copies, according to NielsenIQ BookData.
Hachette remains committed to protecting original creative expression and storytelling, a Hachette spokeswoman said. She added that Hachette requires all submissions to be original to the authors, and asks authors to disclose to the company whether they are using A.I. during the writing process.
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Readers and many writers remain ferociously opposed to the use of the technology for writing, which they regard as cheating or a form of theft. And A.I.-generated writing is not always easy to spot. Shy Girl received some rave reviews when it was self-published, eventually drawing more than 4,900 ratings on Goodreads, and averaging 3.52 stars.
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Readers and many writers remain ferociously opposed to the use of the technology for writing, which they regard as cheating or a form of theft.
Good! They should be ferociously opposed to the use of AI, because it IS cheating, and the technology works ONLY because of theft.