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Mia Ballard's novel Shy Girl was cancelled for using AI. You only know half the story
Description
You've probably heard about author Mia Ballard. Her debut novel "Shy Girl" has been at the center of a controversy about whether she used AI to help write it. After a New York Times article, her publisher dropped her book. She's since deleted most of her social accounts and gone dark.
This story is much bigger than whether one writer did or didn't use AI. It's about the question of who gets to set the standard in AI and creative work? And more importantly who gets protected, and who gets sacrificed to it?
Subscribe to Drey's excellent substack for sharp reporting and open source investigative journalism into tech and power: https://thedreydossier.substack.com
Read / Watch Drey’s reporting on Shy Girl: https://thedreydossier.substack.com/p/the-shy-girl-ai-scandal-is-way-worse
Follow Drey on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok: @thedreydossier
Read more about the limitations of AI-detection software, and why many of the country's most respected universities have banned it. https://timrequarth.substack.com/p/why-you-shouldnt-trust-ai-detector
Read Thad’s blog post called Shy Girl: The Background to the New York Times Story: https://thefutureofpublishing.com/2026/03/shy-girl-the-background-to-the-new-york-times-story/
Bridget’s SMNTY ep about ShyGirl: What the Shy Girl Conversation Says About AI and Art: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-stuff-mom-never-told-you-21123631/episode/what-the-shy-girl-conversation-says-about-ai-and-art-328745937
Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.
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