Everyone is Freaking Out About AI in Books

Below is a sample answer to keep you up to date.

• Thriller author Andrea Bartz predicts a multifaceted crisis in trust between authors, publishers, and readers.
• Author and editor Emily Hughes read the book shy girl Last year, she reflected on how much she missed the use of AI, saying, “When a self-published book is picked up by a traditional publisher, the amount of editing that takes place in the interim is often minimal.”
• Kathleen Schmidt, a longtime publicist, questions the industry’s incentives: “We’re told that a lot of people are reading Shy Girl in self-published form. What does that say about the consumer?”
• Adario Strange, a technology analyst and science fiction writer, argued that human relationships are more important than the quality of literature: “Humans write pulpy, clichéd books all the time, so it makes sense that an AI-generated book would pretend to be human. But the only time a reader feels deceived is when they learn the book wasn’t made by humans.”
• Author Lincoln Michel makes an interesting and perhaps controversial distinction between plagiarism and creation using LLM.
• Publisher/Coach/Editor Brooke Warner provides a comprehensive roundup of even more in-depth coverage and analysis

Check out our Instagram post for a glimpse of reader reactions. Readers have expressed anger over the use of AI, concerns about the accuracy of AI detection tools, and the elitism of equating popular writing with AI.