Some readers recently shared an absurd scene on social media: while reading the physical book "The Road to the End," a sentence suddenly appeared in the text: "Do you need me to adjust some sentences to make the overall style more consistent with the suspense and supernatural atmosphere?" — clearly the tone of an AI assistant.

As a novel that mainly focuses on suspense and supernatural themes, readers expect a sense of immersion. This sudden machine-generated question immediately pulled readers out of the story. It's interesting to note that in the online version of the same book, chapter 80 at the corresponding position has no such line. The news quickly spread online, with netizens calling it the most honest trace of "AI ghostwriting": even the machine's self-talk was forgotten to be removed.

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Publisher Apologizes: Mistakenly Took Software Prompt as the Main Text

Tianjin Zhiyu Shiguang Cultural Media Co., Ltd., the company behind this book, issued an apology. Their investigation concluded that this content was not originally in the manuscript. The problem occurred during the text reduction process, when the team mistakenly included the prompt words from the proofreading software as part of the main text. Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Press also responded, stating that the manuscript went through multiple stages including editing and proofreading, and with so many people involved, responsibility became diluted in the handover. The issue was not with the author; for the already released books, the publisher will recall and destroy all copies, and re-edit them.

A published book being recalled for rework is a real cost in terms of both expenses and reputation. In the current context where intelligent proofreading is increasingly integrated into the publishing process, a prompt word managed to sneak into the printed product, highlighting the absence of manual verification. This incident serves as a warning for "AI participation in publishing": when AI moves from the background of polishing to the front stage of "ghostwriting," how the publishing industry maintains its final line of manual checks may be more important than selling a few more books.