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A new drama has taken the book publishing world by storm: The upcoming U.S. release of the horror book Shy Girl<\/em> was canceled by Hachette Book Group just weeks ahead of its launch date due to suspicion of AI use in its making.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Authored by American poet and fiction writer Mia Ballard, Shy Girl<\/em> is a novel described as focusing on the life of a girl with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who agrees to be held captive as an affluent man\u2019s pet in order to rid herself of financial woes.<\/p>\n The book was self-published early last year. Another edition was then released in November by Hachette\u2019s U.K. imprint Wildfire. Hachette confirmed the cancellation by U.S. imprint Orbit to The<\/em> New York Times<\/em>, which first reported<\/a> on the story.<\/p>\n While Ballard\u2019s self-published version initially received positive reviews, its more recent version has drawn speculation online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a Reddit thread from two months ago, one user dissected the common syntax of large language models (LLMs) and compared it with the book\u2019s prose.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems so obvious to me, but let me know if you agree,\u201d the user<\/a> said in a discussion that now includes hundreds of comments. \u201cIf it isn\u2019t AI, she\u2019s a terrible writer. Her writing is truly indistinguishable from an LLM.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, users on the novel\u2019s Goodreads<\/a> page chimed in with their own speculation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n