Nothing really brings the BookTok world together like accusing a random book of being written by an AI chatbot. Now, upon actually hearing the drama about this, I have actually read a book made by Ballard before. I think it’s called Sugar; don’t quite remember since it’s been such a long time. So basically this book was released in about June 2025 before it was quickly taken off the shelves due to AI accusations, but again, these are only accusations and allegations, not real confirmation that it’s actually made by an AI. The thing that really bugs me during my research about this controversy is that many other white men have used AI in their work before, and so far the only people being accused are black women, and there isn’t even concrete proof that they’re using AI. Still, people have put it in AI detectors and got like 70-78% plagiarized (although they are not reliable at all). Ballard claimed that she had hired an unprofessional editor, and that he or she has been using AI tools. I kinda doubt that because IF you noticed your editor was literally revising the WHOLE book by him or herself, couldn’t you just step in, or just publish the original version? I’m not even sure that the editor is real. Ballard probably just made up a character to blame her use of AI to. Just a theory. I haven’t read the book yet since it is currently unavailable, but I did watch a few videos from people who have. One of them was Frankie’s Shelf. He’s one of my favorite book reviewers. After going through his 3 hour long video, he basically said it. “I’m pretty sure this book is AI slop.” In conclusion, maybe it is Ballard’s editor, maybe not, we don’t know yet. Just please DON’T send hate to people with no clear evidence or confirmation of using AI. That’s it. That’s the drama. Alright, I’ll probably do part 2 once I get more updates,
