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‘Soon publishers won’t stand a chance’: literary world in struggle to detect AI-written books

The Guardian - Media · Amelia Hill · last updated

US release of horror novel Shy Girl cancelled and UK book discontinued after suspected AI use, as publishers feel ‘cold shiver’

Recently, the literary agent Kate Nash started noticing that the submission letters she was receiving from authors were becoming more thorough – albeit also more formulaic.

“I took it as a rise in diligence,” she said. “I thought it was a good thing.”

But then she had what she described as her eureka moment: the letter with the AI prompt right at the top. “It read: ‘Rewrite my query letter for Kate Nash including a comp to a writer she represents,’” she said.

Once Nash had seen the prompt, she “couldn’t unsee AI-assisted or AI-written queries again”.

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