‘Did you use AI?’ is the wrong question. Ask ‘What did you use AI for?’

The useful part

At the end of July, a debut crime novel became the most expensive casualty so far in the publishing industry's war over AI. Fourteen publishing houses had bid for the manuscript, with the winning offer delivering a $2 million contract for the author. When rumors began to circulate that the book had been written with the help of artificial intelligence, his own agents withdrew the book.

How it works

• The experience of engaging with a work of art is often anchored in a meeting of minds, so the idea that A...
• The author denies using AI and has pointed out that the manuscript had been read by editors and acquisitions teams across the industry.
• While the words and sentences remained the same, the emergence of concerns about their source was enough to kill the sale, and possibly the author's future career.
• Part of what a reader buys when they purchase a novel is the human being behind it.

Details worth keeping

What they saw on the page excited them enough to open their wallets. It was at least the third such major scandal this year. The ferocity of the public response to these stories is understandable.