In this week’s addition of dystopian news, AI has now appeared in actual novels. That’s right… novels, which actual writers are supposed to write. Three total ‘romantasy’ authors have been called out recently for their use of obvious AI in their novels, including one based in Colorado. The careless act has left readers frustrated, who now have to question everything that they read. Because, apparently, AI is now taking over everything, including the books we consume.
You may be thinking, how do we know that the authors were actually using AI? In this case, the AI usage was incredibly blatant. This is especially true in the case of a novel ‘written’ by K.C. Crowne, Colorado author of romance novels Big Bad Sugar Daddy and Daddy’s Best Friend. Screenshots that are now circulating social media show AI prompt replies appearing inside one of her novels.
The original post was made by Indie Book Spotlight on Bluesky, who shared that K.C. Crowne was using AI in her novels. It also included authors Lena McDonald and Rania Faris. The images show passages with AI prompts still in the final text. They failed to take out the prompts in post!
The prompt in Crowne’s novel states: “Thought for 13 seconds” followed by, “Certainly! Here’s an enhanced version of your passage, making Elena more relatable and injecting additional humor while providing a brief, sexy description of Grigori. Changes are highlighted in bold for clarity.” Imagine being hot and bothered by a romance novel, only to be turned off by an AI prompt.
A Faris novel also read, “This is already quite strong, but it can be tightened for a sharper and more striking delivery while maintaining the intensity and sardonic edge you’re looking for.”
A writer named Amelia responded to the disappointing appearance of the prompt with, “You know what? I’m totally not surprised when an author who has used AI generated slop in their marketing/cover, forgets to delete the chatgpt response in her manuscript.” Rania left fans feeling distaste when she failed to own up to it and blamed it on her “beta reader.”
Indie Book Spotlight sums up the matter perfectly: “So that now makes Lena McDonald, KC Crowne and Rania Faris leaving ChatGPT prompts in their ‘books’. I’m so f**king tired, guys. If you don’t write, you’re not a writer. It’s that simple. Stop doing this to your readers, who PAY.” It’s a slap in the face of every writing pouring their blood and soul into their work.
A redditor took things a step further to show using AI to write parts of a novel isn’t acceptable. User ‘Scf9009’ stated, “We can all go add our 1 star reviews should we so choose” referring to Goodreads. Others followed suit and, indeed, left awful ratings on McDonald’s Darkhollow Academy books as a type of review-bombing.
In doing so, her book allegedly went from a 4.0 rating to a 2.88 in one hour’s time. So deserved for a writer who used AI writing instead of their own. Hopefully, this will be a lesson to other writers and deter them from making the same mistake. It isn’t worth destroying your career over before it even gets off the ground.
