A PhD student at Southern Methodist University lost a publishing deal reportedly worth more than $2 million last month after allegations he used AI to write parts of the book.
The author, Jerry Falade, denied the claims in a social media post.
鈥淚鈥檒l talk when the time is right,鈥� Falade wrote. 鈥淒efinitely innocent!!!鈥�
The book鈥檚 publishing rights were purchased by Minotaur Books in a competitive auction with 13 other publishers, according to , a book publishing trade magazine.
Falade鈥檚 book agent, Marc Gerald, told the magazine Falade gave conflicting answers about his use of AI after concerns were raised by another editor halfway through the book submission process.
SMU told 四虎影院 the book is unrelated to work done at the school, and declined to comment further.
四虎影院 reached out to Falade, Gerald and Minotaur Books but did not hear back. This article will be updated with any response.
鈥淚鈥檓 just a boy in my 20鈥檚,鈥� Falade wrote on social media. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 understand why anyone is witch-hunting me.鈥�
The crime novel, 鈥淐all Me, I鈥檒l Hide the Body,鈥� is the latest book backed by a large publisher to face accusations of AI use.
Hachette Book Group cancelled a planned horror novel, 鈥淪hy Girl,鈥� in March after the author was of using AI to write the book. 鈥淒aggermouth,鈥� a popular dystopian romance novel, also , but its publisher has denied those claims.
Jane Friedman, who鈥檚 worked in publishing for more than a decade and written a book on the industry, said publishers are responding to public backlash.
鈥淭here is this really strong moral hazard associated with using AI,鈥� Friedman said. 鈥淵ou have this piece of technology that is doing something that creators feel is sacred, which is creating expression, creating language, but there's no human intent behind it.鈥�
There鈥檚 also a legal concern.
The released a report in 2025 outlining that AI-generated content can only be copyrighted when it has 鈥渟ufficient expressive elements鈥� from a human. But that human element cannot be just the prompts written to the AI.
鈥淭here's also a lot of gray area in here," Friedman said. "We're not going to know where the line is until there are court cases that examine it."
The prevalence of AI, and the difficulty of accurately detecting it, has created paranoia between author, publisher and literary agent, she said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e just operating in a world of both confusion and suspicion. No one really trusts anyone anymore,鈥� Friedman said. 鈥淭here are some people who think, 鈥榳ell, we can just work on the honor system.鈥� I think the honor systems unfortunately are broken.鈥�
Falade told The Bookseller he was concerned his book was put through faulty AI-detection software. His agent denied that claim.
Friedman said there are no easy answers when it comes to detecting AI usage.
鈥淚 have yet to see anyone come forward with a feasible process or solution that everyone is going to agree on,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 do think there's probably going to be some sort of combination 鈥� and it's going depend on the publisher 鈥� of using technical tools, human judgment and relationship building with the author.鈥�
Dylan Duke is 四虎影院's breaking news reporter. Got a tip? Email Dylan at dduke@kera.org.
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