The outlets behind a widely-circulated AI-created booklist, the majority of which were fake titles, have issued statements apologizing for the piece. The Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer, which both ran the “Heat Index” supplement that contained the list, noted that it was created by and syndicated from King Features, a division of Hearst. Neither paper’s newsroom staff had anything to do with it, they said. A spokesperson for King Features said in a statement, “King Features has a strict policy with our staff, cartoonists, columnists, and freelance writers against the use of AI to create content. “The Heat Index summer supplement […]
Controversies
Newspapers Run Fake Summer Reading List
At least two major newspapers recently ran an AI-generated summer reading round up that featured several books that do not exist. The Philadelphia Inquirer (on May 15) and the Chicago Sun-Times (on May 18) both published a special insert, Heat Index: Your Best of Summer Guide, which included a list of 15 boks and brief descriptions. There are no publication records for nine of the listed books, including those by Isabel Allende, Andy Weir, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Min Jin Lee, Rumaan Alam, Rebecca Makkai, Maggie O’Farrell, Percival Everett, and Delia Owens. Confusingly, a few of the books at the end […]
PEN America Awards Invite Criticism for a Second Year
PEN America released longlists for its annual awards on Friday, and at least two authors report that they have withdrawn their books from consideration. Kaveh Akbar and Brandon Shimoda, whose books were longlisted for the $75,000 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, announced on social media that they were declining the nominations and referred readers to Writers Against the War on Gaza for more information. According to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, Shimoda’s book The Afterlife Is Letting Go did not appear when PEN posted the longlists, and as of press time Akbar’s Martyr! is still listed. WAWOG has criticized PEN America […]
Meta Wins Bid To Stop Whistleblower Book Promotion
An emergency arbitrator ruled in an interim award on Wednesday that author Sarah Wynn-Williams must cease promotion of her book CARELESS PEOPLE, her whistleblower account of the culture at Facebook. The arbitrator writes that Meta will suffer “immediate and irreparable loss…in the absence of emergency relief,” according to a copy of the filing posted by the company. In a claim brought against Wynn-Williams and publisher Flatiron Books/Macmillan, Meta argued that the book violated a non-disparagement contract the author signed as part of her severance package after being fired from Facebook in 2017. Wynn-Williams is enjoined from making any “disparaging, critical, […]
Romance Author Pulls Book After Online Criticism
Romance author Sophie Lark is “pausing” the publication of SPARROW AND VINE and other books in the series after criticism surfaced online, she wrote on Instagram. The first in a planned series, SPARROW AND VINE was due to be published by Bloom Books on April 22. Early readers noted insensitive lines in the book, spoken by the main character without any pushback or disagreement from other characters or in the text. In one instance, Lark writes, “Shouldn’t there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?” In another, she writes, “I was inspired by […]
Dark Horse Becomes the First Publisher to Drop Neil Gaiman
Dark Horse announced on social media on Friday that it “takes seriously the allegations against Neil Gaiman and we are no longer publishing his works.” They are the first of Gaiman’s publishers to publicly acknowledge those allegations and cancel or remove work under contract as a result. The publisher said it was, “Confirming that the Anansi Boys comic series and collected volume have been cancelled.” They had published seven of a planned eight installments in the comic book series. The writer of the series Marc Bernardin said on Instagram recently, “Last Wednesday, issue 7 of Anansi Boys hit the stands. […]