Mia Ballard's novel Shy Girl was cancelled for using AI. You only know half the story

Mia Ballard's novel Shy Girl was cancelled for using AI. You only know half the story

From There Are No Girls on the Internet by iHeartPodcasts

April 8, 2026 · 1h 3m · Season 5 · Episode 97

About this episode

The episode discusses the controversy surrounding Mia Ballard's novel 'Shy Girl' and the implications of AI in creative writing.

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…

People in this episode

Host: Drey

Topics covered

  • AI in creative work
  • author controversy
  • publishing industry
  • social media impact
  • creative standards
  • protection in art

Keywords

  • Mia Ballard
  • Shy Girl
  • AI controversy
  • New York Times
  • publishing
  • creative standards
  • social media
  • Drey

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: New York Times, Drey, Drey’s substack, timrequarth.substack, thefutureofpublishing.com, Stuff Mom Never Told You

Books & works: Shy Girl

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