mia ballard on AI and “shy girl”
so if you hadn’t heard, “shy girl,” by mia ballard was pulled from hatchette publishing due to the discovery of the book being likely written using AI generation. Which is good! We should have no tolerance for this nonsense and the disgusting bastardization of writing, publishing and art creation; but its the author’s response to this all which has really been wild to me.
first most, this isn’t ballard’s first book; many readers claim that her other novels seem just as rife with AI woes and key giveaways that are also seen in shy girl like the oftentimes cringy and heavyhanded use of similes in almost every sentence and paragraph, but also the shoddy writing techniques exhibited in other ai models like, “it’s not A, it’s B.”
so this doesn’t seem like a first time offense but also ballard claims that she didn’t do this and that the AI integration had been done without her knowing. So, 1) she doesn’t dismiss and admits that AI was used to write this book, but 2) even if a nameless “friend,” that you had publish this book utilized ai extensively without you knowing did they do the same for your previous books, and did you not read through your own novel before self-publishing? Isn’t that a key point and often area of contention with self publishing (as someone writing a book, yes it is)? You gave your book to someone to “edit,” then never read it again? It all seems so wild to me. and then, even after being self-published (the sp copy is the one I own) and then allegedly edited and rewritten with AI without consent, you then sold the rights to hatchette publishing again without checking, rereading or finding this out sooner?
If I was writing a book and I had a friend look over it and edit it for me (I wouldn’t lol), but I’d meet with them ask them their thoughts, read their edits and then adjust to match my own tone and prose. If I discovered that AI was used to write it, I would instantly detect it upon reading, which many readers did, I would publicly address it, and provide my own prior copy to my readers. What’s being purported as the misunderstanding just doesn’t seem palpable at all.
Ballard claims that she is doing horribly mentally and I can empathize because if I wrote using an AI model and then was discovered to be a fake and a phony abusing the holy writing institution and inherent trust between author and reader who spends their hard earned money to support my and read my book but just never wanted to be found out, I’d feel bad too. Ballard doesn’t deserve death threats or ad-hominem attacks but I am thankful for how Hatchette handled this and hope it sets up an important precedent for similar bad actors.
