TruaceTracing the truth around AISaturday, August 29, 2026

Media & Arts

133 stories · page 4 of 9

Evidence-backed problem

Hachette pulls horror novel Shy Girl after suspected AI use

Hachette Book Group has withdrawn a horror novel after allegations circulated online that its author relied heavily on artificial intelligence. The book is to be discontinued in the UK after being published in November 2025, and its US launch date has been cancelled. The book, Shy Girl by Mia Ballard, had been scheduled for release in the US this spring under Hachette’s Orbit imprint. However, the publisher confirmed it had halted publication after an internal review. The title has also been removed from online…

The Guardian · Media & Arts

Hachette pulls horror novel Shy Girl after suspected AI use
‘Obvious markers of AI’: doubts raised over winner of short story prize
Evidence-backed problem

‘Obvious markers of AI’: doubts raised over winner of short story prize

A few syntactical tics – and the verdict of an AI detection platform – have sparked a furore over the possibility that a short story given a prestigious literary award was written by AI. The foundation that awarded the prize and Granta, the magazine that published the winning story, said they had considered the allegations but had not reached a conclusion as to whether they were true. “It may be that the judges have now awarded a prize to an instance of AI plagiarism – we don’t yet know, and perhaps we never wil…

Media & Arts
Book publishers sue Google for copyright infringement over Gemini AI training
Evidence-backed problem

Book publishers sue Google for copyright infringement over Gemini AI training

A group of major publishers have filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the company of illegally using millions of copyrighted books to help build its Gemini artificial intelligence models, in “one of the most prolific infringements of copyrighted materials in history”. The case, filed in federal court in New York, has been brought by three publishers – Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier – and bestselling American author Scott Turow. The publishers argue that Google repurposed books that had b…

Media & Arts
$2m crime novel deal collapses amid questions over AI use
Evidence-backed problem

$2m crime novel deal collapses amid questions over AI use

A high-profile publishing deal for a debut crime novel has collapsed after doubts emerged over whether artificial intelligence played a role in writing it. The hotly anticipated manuscript Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body, by Jerry Falade, was withdrawn from sale by its agent despite reportedly receiving an offer for more than $2m (£1.5m) from Minotaur, owned by Macmillan US, as part of a 14-way auction. The plan was to publish it in 2028. An email sent to publishers by Falade’s agents and seen by the Guardian said:…

Media & Arts
“It Was 80% Me, 20% AI”: Seeking Authenticity in Co-Writing with Large Language Models
Both readings

“It Was 80% Me, 20% AI”: Seeking Authenticity in Co-Writing with Large Language Models

Given the rising proliferation and diversity of AI writing assistance tools, especially those powered by large language models (LLMs), both writers and readers may have concerns about the impact of these tools on the authenticity of writing work. We examine whether and how writers want to preserve their authentic voice when co-writing with AI tools and whether personalization of AI writing support could help achieve this goal. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 professional writers, during which they co-wrote with both personalized and non-personalized AI writing-support tools. We supplemented writers’ perspectives with opinions from 30 avid readers about the written work co-produced with AI collected through an online survey. Our findings illuminate conceptions of authenticity in human-AI co-creation, which focus more on the process and experience of constructing creators’ authentic selves. While writers reacted positively to personalized AI writing tools, they believed the form of personalization needs to target writers’ growth and go beyond the phase of text production. Overall, readers’ responses showed less concern about human-AI co-writing. Readers could not distinguish AI-assisted work, personalized or not, from writers’ solo-written work and showed positive attitudes toward writers experimenting with new technology for creative writing.

Media & Arts
The Use of AI in the Creation of News: Application Framework, Ethical Challenges, and Governance Pathways of AIGC
Both readings

The Use of AI in the Creation of News: Application Framework, Ethical Challenges, and Governance Pathways of AIGC

The rapid creation of technological systems, and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in almost every field, including journalism, is changing the entire news sector. AI is becoming an invaluable tool for journalists in data mining as well as improving their craft. AI enhances efficiency and productivity in news generation. An amazing amount of news products can be created in collaboration with humans and AI. Technology, however, and its rapid advancement creates numerous challenges including every type of pr…

Media & Arts
Quality perceptions and intended engagement in response to AI-generated and AI-assisted news
Evidence-backed gain

Quality perceptions and intended engagement in response to AI-generated and AI-assisted news

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in news production raises important questions about how audiences perceive and respond to AI-generated journalism. This preregistered survey experiment (N = 599, German-speaking Switzerland) examines (i) perceptions of article quality (measured as credibility, readability, and expertise) across news excerpts that were human-written, AI-assisted, or fully AI-generated, and (ii) self-reported intentions to engage following disclosure of AI involvement. Participant…

Media & Arts

Narrative Coherence and Distributed Authorship in Nineteen Eighty-Four and 1 the Road: A Comparative Case Study

Generative text systems challenge established accounts of literary authorship, creative agency, and communicative intentionality. This qualitative comparative case study examines selected passages from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (2003) and Ross Goodwin’s 1 the Road (2018), an early sensor-driven LSTM experiment. Informed by computational creativity and posthumanist accounts of distributed cognition, the study compares the texts in relation to local cohesion, global narrative continuity, temporal and ca…

Media & Arts
Narrative Coherence and Distributed Authorship in Nineteen Eighty-Four and 1 the Road: A Comparative Case Study

Navigating codified, tacit and novel rules: Mapping the human-AI creativity frontier

This paper examines the boundary between human and machine creativity by analysing 593 tasks across 126 occupations in the cultural and creative industries. Theoretically, we propose an evolutionary conceptualisation of creativity, structured around three rule types corresponding to retention (codified), adoption (tacit), and origination (novel) phases. Empirically, using GPT-4, we generate synthetic annotations of the semantic content of task descriptions in the Australian Skills Classification. We derive indic…

Media & Arts
Navigating codified, tacit and novel rules: Mapping the human-AI creativity frontier

Game, set, Chat: how tennis players use AI to scout opponents and run their lives

Not so long ago, Emma Raducanu was on her phone when she found herself wondering what her comprehensive usage of ChatGPT said about her own character. “I use Chat a lot,” Raducanu says, laughing. “Every small thing I do it and I got this idea. So, you know how Spotify do a Spotify Wrapped? I asked ChatGPT to make me a Chat Wrapped, and it was giving me a rundown on my personality. “I was like: ‘It’s a little bit too accurate.’ It was very clear, very concise. No nonsense, straight into the question. I thought: ‘…

Sports
Game, set, Chat: how tennis players use AI to scout opponents and run their lives