As AI Discourse Rages, Publishing Has More Questions Than Answers

The cancellation of Mia Ballard's horror novel Shy Girl by Hachette's Orbit and Wildfire imprints has forced a reckoning across the publishing industry. Publishers Weekly's definitive post-mortem finds that Penguin Random House was the only Big Five publisher willing to comment publicly, while researchers and literary agents warn that AI accusations are 'incredibly difficult to prove' and that the industry's contracts and detection tools remain wholly inadequate for the challenge ahead.