Im a novelist cheering the $2.4M AI book deal that should open everyones eyes

The publishing industry is in an uproar this month as agents and editors alike confront a mysterious new literary talent: artificial intelligence.The ruckus began when first-time author Jerry Falade, whose crime novel “Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body” reportedly drew a massive $2.4 million publishing deal in a fierce 14-way auction, was suddenly dropped by both his publisher and his agent over suspicions he’d used AI to write the book.Falade denied the charge and cried anti-black discrimination.But the incident should force us all to confront a far more interesting question than Is this racist?It’s time to ask ourselves: What is literary creativity — and to what extent do we actually care whether humans write the books we read?Falade gestured at this question in his self-defense.His manuscript, he complained, had “passed through first readers, second readers, editors and acquisitions teams at numerous publishing houses ..

.It is difficult to believe that every one of those experienced professionals would have failed to notice” any telltale signs of AI.Precisely.Falade’s agents — highly respected players in both the US and the UK — even now call his rejected book “an incredible manuscript that dazzled us.”Minotaur, the imprint that won the right to publish it, is a power player in the crime and thriller space.If consumer AI has now become powerful enough to create manuscripts that industry leaders believe to be potential major sources of serious revenue, why not lean into it? The people who jumped at Falade’s book have years of demonstrated business acumen behind them; there’s no reason to doubt their instincts on its bestselling potential, whatever its provenance. I write what is called “literary fiction,” a genre as much as horror or romantasy (while rarely selling as well as books like Stephen King’s “Carrie” or Katee Roberts’ “The Dragon’s Bride”).Other “literary” authors have already won public plaudits for AI-...