About That AI-Generated Book List In The Chicago Sun-Times
My devastating experience of finding my novel featured in a magazine
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About That AI-Generated Book List In The Chicago Sun-Times
You might have heard the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper recently published a “Summer reading list for 2025” that included recommendations for novels like Atonement by Ian McEwan, Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury—and The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir, a novel about “a programmer who discovers that an AI system has developed consciousness.”
Except the Weir novel doesn’t exist. Nor do nine other titles listed. It turns out the guy who “authored” the list used AI to generate the article.
I’m incredibly frustrated by this for all the reasons you might also feel frustrated:
People already have a hard time trusting newspapers, and finding AI hallucinations in print only makes the situation worse. Authors already have to contend with shrinking book coverage, and a list of titles no one can actually read has taken up what little space is left to promote real books.
But I’m also frustrated by the reminder that book lists are rarely what they seem. And do I have a devastating (hilarious?) story to prove it.