A horror novel originally set for release in the US on May 19 has been pulled from publication after allegations that the book was AI-generated. The book's cancellation came just one day after the New York Times approached publishing company Hachette Book Group with evidence appearing to show that Mia Ballard "relied heavily on artificial intelligence" to write Shy Girl, the newspaper reports. Hachette responded by telling the Times its Orbit imprint would no longer publish the book in the US and would discontinue it in the UK, where it had already sold 1,800 print copies since being published in November, the Wall Street Journal reports.
"Hachette remains committed to protecting original creative expression and storytelling," said a spokesperson, who confirmed that the company requires authors to disclose if they are using AI while writing. Ballard denies the allegations; her book was self-published in February 2025 and she says the person she hired to edit that version of the novel used AI and that she is pursuing legal action. "This controversy has changed my life in many ways and my mental health is at an all time low and my name is ruined for something I didn't even personally do," she says in a statement.
As the Times reports, publishing companies are increasingly mining self-published works as they look for big hits, and Ballard's book had received many positive reviews when it was picked up for publication. But eventually, some readers started drawing attention to things like repetitive phrases and odd wording to hypothesize that it was perhaps "AI slop."
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