A PhD student at Southern Methodist University lost a publishing deal reportedly worth more than $2 million last month after allegations he used AI to write parts of the book.
The author, Jerry Falade, denied the claims in a social media post.
“I’ll talk when the time is right,” Falade wrote. “Definitely innocent!!!”
The book’s publishing rights were purchased by Minotaur Books in a competitive auction with 13 other publishers, according to The Bookseller, a book publishing trade magazine.
Falade’s book agent, Marc Gerald, told the magazine Falade gave conflicting answers about his use of AI after concerns were raised by another editor halfway through the book submission process.
SMU told KERA the book is unrelated to work done at the school, and declined to comment further.
KERA reached out to Falade, Gerald and Minotaur Books but did not hear back. This article will be updated with any response.
“I’m just a boy in my 20’s,” Falade wrote on social media. “I don’t understand why anyone is witch-hunting me.”
The crime novel, “Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body,” is the latest book backed by a large publisher to face accusations of AI use.
Hachette Book Group cancelled a planned horror novel, “Shy Girl,” in March after the author was accused online of using AI to write the book. “Daggermouth,” a popular dystopian romance novel, also faces AI accusations, but its publisher has denied those claims.
Jane Friedman, who’s worked in publishing for more than a decade and written a book on the industry, said publishers are responding to public backlash.
“There is this really strong moral hazard associated with using AI,” Friedman said. “You have this piece of technology that is doing something that creators feel is sacred, which is creating expression, creating language, but there's no human intent behind it.”
There’s also a legal concern.
The U.S. Copyright Office released a report in 2025 outlining that AI-generated content can only be copyrighted when it has “sufficient expressive elements” from a human. But that human element cannot be just the prompts written to the AI.
“There's also a lot of gray area in here," Friedman said. "We're not going to know where the line is until there are court cases that examine it."
The prevalence of AI, and the difficulty of accurately detecting it, has created paranoia between author, publisher and literary agent, she said.
“We’re just operating in a world of both confusion and suspicion. No one really trusts anyone anymore,” Friedman said. “There are some people who think, ‘well, we can just work on the honor system.’ I think the honor systems unfortunately are broken.”
Falade told The Bookseller he was concerned his book was put through faulty AI-detection software. His agent denied that claim.
Friedman said there are no easy answers when it comes to detecting AI usage.
“I have yet to see anyone come forward with a feasible process or solution that everyone is going to agree on,” she said. “I do think there's probably going to be some sort of combination — and it's going depend on the publisher — of using technical tools, human judgment and relationship building with the author.”
Dylan Duke is KERA's breaking news reporter. Got a tip? Email Dylan at dduke@kera.org.
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