A photo taken on Sept. 1, 2025, shows the letters “AI” for Artificial Intelligence on a laptop screen (right) next to the logo of the ChatGPT application on a smartphone screen in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany.
Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images/TNS
“Shy Girl,” a horror novel by Mia Ballard, was slated to hit U.S. bookstore shelves this month until the novel’s publisher, Hachette Book Group, cancelled the release in response to widespread AI allegations.
The incident marks the first major AI scandal in the publishing industry. Hachette is considered one of the “big five” publishing houses, and its response to these allegations sets a precedent for the rest of the industry in regards to AI.
“Shy Girl” was originally self-published by Ballard in February of 2025. The novel follows Gia, a depressed woman who meets a mysterious man and agrees to live as his pet in exchange for his financial support.
The novel was met with mostly supportive reviews upon its initial publication and garnered a 3.48 rating on Goodreads. However, some early reviews raised concerns about AI use.
“I am quite certain that this was written by ChatGPT,” said one Goodreads reviewer.
“I thought maybe it was intentional, like the main character was losing her mind so her writing became unorganized, but now I’m thinking maybe it’s entirely AI written,” said another.
Hachette acquired publishing rights to the novel last year and officially published it in the U.K. in November of 2025. All the while, AI allegations continued to circulate and gain traction online.
The most condemning allegation came in the form of a nearly three-hour-long video essay titled “i’m pretty sure this book is ai slop,” posted to Youtube in January. The video currently holds 1.4 million views.
The video, posted by creator Frankie’s Shelf, highlights the novel’s clunky writing as well as the shallow plot. Frankie cites nonsensical similes, repetitive word choice, and out-of-place descriptions as the main features of the novel that point to AI use.
Unable to ignore the controversy any longer, Hachette conducted their own investigation and subsequently announced the novel would be pulled from U.K. shelves and would not be released in the U.S. at all.
“Hachette remains committed to protecting original creative expression and storytelling,” a Hachette spokesperson told the New York Times after the cancellation announcement.
Ballard denied using AI to write the novel and claimed an editor she hired must have used AI to edit without her knowledge.
Regardless of the author’s claims, the controversy of “Shy Girl” serves as a public microcosm of the private chaos buzzing through the publishing industry as of late.
AI-generated and AI-assisted novels have already flooded the self-published market. At the same time, major publishing houses continue to pick up self-published novels and rerelease them through traditional publishing—like in the case of “Shy Girl.”
It’s easy to see how the scandal of “Shy Girl” came to be; it was a mere matter of time.
Besides the appalling environmental and ethical concerns raised by generative AI use, it also raises questions surrounding creativity and critical thinking.
Writing a novel—or making any art, for that matter—is a deeply personal and vulnerable experience. Creating it should be taxing and difficult, because that’s what yields authentic results.
When we outsource any aspect of the creative process, we’re trimming down the parts of ourselves embedded in our art. The gap between art and artist should be almost nonexistent, and AI only serves to widen it.
Some may argue that AI shouldn’t be used to write novels, but using it to edit or brainstorm is acceptable. To me, this is flawed logic. Editing and brainstorming are just as much part of the creative process as getting words down on the page, if not more so.
Acclaimed poet Chen Chen put this point in succinct terms in a recent thread on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“If you’re trying to save time as a writer by using AI, I suggest you find another profession. It takes time to write well. […] The time spent learning one’s craft is everything,” Chen said in the thread.
In response to those who cite AI as “just another tool,” Chen noted that the nature of generative AI is essentially large-scale plagiarism and using it robs you of the creative process.
This dilemma isn’t exclusive to the publishing industry, either. It’s a problem present wherever writing occurs—such as the classroom, for instance.
The use of AI by students is astounding and only growing. Instead of writing their own essays or doing their own work, students are prompting AI to write their classwork for them.
The temptation is understandable. Many, many hours of my life could have been saved if I’d used AI to write my essays in high school. Where would that leave me, though?
Would I know how to structure a sentence or a paragraph? Would I be able to critically think about a topic and sort my thoughts into concise points? Would I be able to write the very article you’re reading?
The answer is no. Every time we do the hard work and write, we exercise our critical thinking and communication skills. We begin a dialogue between ourselves and the reader. We connect, human to human.
Whether in commercial novels or college essays, the words we put out into the world should be of our own mind. AI use has already negatively impacted the environment, and it’s actively making us dumber. Not to mention the fact that automating an age-old practice like storytelling draws a giant line between us and our collective humanity.
At the end of the day, it’s just plain embarrassing. We shouldn’t need a machine to string our sentences together for us. After all, if humanity doesn’t have stories brimming with truth, lived experiences, and heart, I’m not sure what we have left.
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