‘Trust us, we always know when it is AI’: Indian publishers, authors dive into the future of writing

Weve reached a point where one wonders about any new writing emerging post2025 mdash is this all human createdrdquo says Anish Chandy founder of Labyrinth Literary AgencyItrsquos a question mark that has rocked the literary world in the past fortnight with three out of five regional winners of Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2026 facing allegations of using AIldquoWhatever happened with the Commonwealth Prize is unfortunate but I expect more of that to happen AI intervention is already in books all around us we just donrsquot know it yetrdquo says ChandyLast month Nobel Prizewinner for literature Olga Tokarczuk said she uses AI to help develop ideas often asking it ldquoDarling how could we develop this beautifullyrdquo Closer to home actorauthor Prajakta Koli sparked a furore two months ago on revealing that she had used ChatGPT to draft the acknowledgements section in her novel Too Good to Be True Both authors maintain that they did all of the creative fiction writing on their own but were still slammed zby critics online Sunday middayrsquos attempts to reach out to Koli and her publisher HarperCollins India went unansweredAs for the Commonwealth Prize snafu many have pointed to the verdict of an AI detector software mdash which ironically is AI too mdash to support the allegations Such software is notorious for false positives We fed a similar programme one of our own stories dating back to 2012 mdash long before wersquod ever heard of Artificial Intelligence mdash and the website flagged it as 70 per cent AI Far from foolproofGranta which published the Prizewinning stories online has said that ldquoperhaps we never will knowrdquo if they were authored by human or AI Itrsquos a terrifying admission Even two years ago AI ldquowritingrdquo was easily identifiable as a lazy mimicry of literature But if a story drafted with the help of AI can pull one over the jury of a prestigious award then what hope is leftThe truth is Large Language Models LLMs are so advanced that the binary of ldquohuman writing good AI sloprdquo is no longer trueNow herersquos the truly scary question If we can no longer tell the difference between the two are we looking at a future where AI books will compete with human literary efforts both in bookstores and awardslsquoWe must question why writers turn to AIrsquoNatasha Joshi director of The Deodar Prize says we need a more robust ecosystem to support young writersNatasha Joshi director of The Deodar Prize says they do not accept stories that use AI Submissions for the short story award are currently open till July 15 PicAtul KambleCloser to home Natasha Joshi director of The Deodar Prize is watching the Commonwealth Prize controversy closely Interestingly the Asian winner of the Commonwealth Prize Sharon Aruparayil mdash who is among those accused of AI usage mdash had been shortlisted by The Deodar Prize last year for a different story Phoron for The Forgotten Its visual imagery left an impression on JoshiThe Deodar Prize does not accept AI submissions Award juries and editors at publishing houses can still pick out AIrsquos ldquohandiworkrdquo from genuine human expression she says ldquoIf you have read very deeply you will not enjoy AI writing You can see clearly what it is trying to sound likerdquoUnlike a layperson who might point to a ldquoNot X but Yrdquo sentence structure shyas a telltale sign of AI usage mdasha method that is not foolproof mdash ldquoone thing experienced editors are able to identify is lsquovoicersquordquo says Joshi ldquoItrsquos well recognised that AI doesnrsquot have a voice because itrsquos a lowest common denominator of othersrsquo voices Even if you train it on a style maintaining emotional salience moving a plot forward and offering an original voice all together seems too much for the model Irsquod still bet on the jury who have read so widely and deeply to pick out any foul playrdquoThe Deodar Prize is aimed at encouraging new voices in Indian fiction These very voices are most vulnerable to allegations of AI usage because of the LLM boom since 2025 Many have taken to changing their style to sound less like AIldquoYoung writers are very vulnerable Creativity is a fragile thing itrsquos a deeply frustrating selfdoubtridden process And yet people do it right I think we have to believe that people want to write Irsquom more interested in the support gaps that AI has highlighted In India our ecosystems for supporting writers is impoverished So when there is no other place to get assistance and feedback of course you turn to AI How can we change thisrdquoAs for whether AI books will ever eclipse human literary efforts ldquoMy sense is that most people will just not want to read it Human endeavour surpassing all limits is what makes art incredible A robot jumping 100 metres is not an athlete and an LLM coughing out text is no writerrdquoPublishers sayPriya KapoorlsquoAs AI technology improves and the quality becomes more sophisticated we too will inevitably use it more meaningfully But at the moment Roli still does not accept AIgenerated manuscripts or images in terms of manuscripts and visual material With much of what we currently receive it is still somewhat obvious when something is AIgeneratedhellipThe larger challenge for publishers now is that we are entering a much greyer area where AI can produce technically competent even impressive work But publishing is not only about technical competence It is also about authenticity lived experience originality of thought and cultural perspectiveI also think the industry will eventually need clearer ethical and editorial guidelines around disclosure Like schools and universities publishing may eventually move in a similar direction where disclosure becomes a natural part ofthe processrsquoPriya Kapoor publisher Roli BookslsquoAs of today Penguin Random House Indiarsquos position is that we cannot acquire a work which has been produced even partially using AI If a work has been AI generated then the author is not able to assert copyright over the entire work As per our publishing licence agreement the author gives an undertaking that the work is ldquooriginalrdquo and that he is the sole copyright owner of the workWe use an AI detection tool which gives you a percentage estimate of the extent to which a document may have been AIgenerated instead of simply giving a yes or no answer But that alone cannot be considered a foolproof way of determining AI usage in text Editorial judgement is important as is full author disclosure and I believe most traditional publishers at some point will change submission guidelines to reflect this AIgenerated and assisted books are actively being published and sold and are almost certainly going to become more common in the coming futureThe question of awards is more complex Wersquore now seeing different institutions and prize bodies evolving policies around AI involvement Though most of the prestigious literary awards still strictly mandate that all nominations to be humangenerated This is still a rapidly evolving spacersquoGurveen Chadha executive editor Penguin Random House IndialsquoReaders push back against AIrsquoAntoine LewislsquoThe Commonwealth Prize incident was an anomaly some part of the process obviously broke down Itrsquos not a problem we have encountered yet One relies on publishers for this gatekeeping as they have a lot more to lose The real question is will readers actually care if something has been created by AI if it is as pleasing as a human creation And what wersquove seen so far is that there is definitely a pushback from readers against AIrsquoAntoine Lewis programming director of Mumbairsquos Lit Live festival says readers have time and again pushed back against AI use in booksAntoine Lewis programming director Literature Live The Mumbai LitFestlsquoThis is not a future hypotheticalrsquoLiterary agent Anish Chandy says AI is already part of the publishing world but it doesnrsquot have to be all badFor Anish Chandy the issue is far more nuanced than just ldquoAI is badrdquo The founder of Labyrinth Literary Agency fields hundreds of queries a month from new writers some of whom have used AIldquoFor fiction mdash a creative exercise mdash AI is a real problemrdquo he says Itrsquos not so black and white when it comes to nonfiction though ldquoLetrsquos say someone has done the legwork in rural Maharashtra for an investigative piece They may not be able to articulate that story in English AI can help them with that so they reach a wider audience The ethics here are similar to using a ghostwriterrdquo There is no escaping the AI problem he says ldquoThis is not a future hypothetical Theyrsquore AI books already on bookstore shelvesrdquoThe industry is starting to adopt the technology too Take Meru Gokhale former editorinchief at a top publishing house who now runs her own AIassisted editing platform editrixaiThe key says Chandy is transparent declaration At his own agency ldquoif we suspect AI usage we ask people to declare itrdquo ldquoIf it is fully AIwritten we donrsquot accept it For projects that we do accept we are transparent with the publisherrdquolsquoWonrsquot keep AI books in our storersquoAhalya Naidu cofounder of Trilogy bookstore says AI is exploitative of writersAhalya NaiduIn the US bookstore chain Barnes amp Noble said they willing to stock AIwritten books as long as they were labelled as such We ask Ahalya Naidu cofounder of Trilogy Curated Bookshop and Library in Bandra whether thatrsquos the future for bookstores and literary awards in India too ldquoI hope we never get to that dayrdquo she says ldquoIf any book that we have on our shelves turns out to be AIcreated wersquod be glad to take it off to make room for good writers who respect their craft their voicerdquoldquoWhat do we really hope to achieve by granting a prize for creativity to a tool that affects the environment is built on uncredited copyright protected work and for all its costs could be put to better userdquo she questions ldquoTo say a tool is as good as a human writer is to devalue the human while blocking the door for all wellmeaning truly talented writers How is that okayrdquoPiciStockThe problem is a lack of transparency ldquoBe upfront whether you are a firsttime or a bestselling writer or a publisher who thinks this is the way of the new world or an illustrator who genuinely feels AI is creating art mdash just own it Do not hide it donrsquot wait to admit it only when someone calls you out Respect the reader enough to let them make an informed choiceldquoAs an editor librarian and bookseller I donrsquot think it is necessary to use generative AI These tools are ultimately exploitative and extractive That prompt you send out comes back riding on the back of stolen work made by real people some of whom spent their lifetimes perfecting that character that turn of phrase that act of fluency that you will later claim as your ownrdquoInstead she champions hiring an illustrator or an editor or bringing in a coauthor to help with any limitationldquoAnd give them credit and compensationrdquolsquoAI will always be one step behind usrsquoJerry Pinto awardwinning author and jury chair for the JCB Prize 2024 says AI can never be more than a copycatJerry PintoAs an author who has won multiple awards mdash including the Sahitya Akademi Award for his debut novel Em and the Big Hoom mdash and as someone who has presided on multiple juries for literary awards Jerry Pinto is familiar with both sides of the equationldquoIrsquom fairly sure some genre authors are already using AI If they do not tell us we might never know It will depend on the honesty of the writers and the sagacity of the editors and readersrdquo he saysThat discernment counts for a lot it turns out In March when readers in the UK pointed out that Shy Girl a femgore novel by Mia Ballard had the markers of AIgenerated text publishing giant Hachette pulled the book from the market altogetherPinto remains firm though that AI canrsquot replace human creativity ldquoThere is a weakness in AI mdash it is not artificial intelligence it is artificial plagiarism Itrsquos always learning to sound more like us but we will keep moving forward It will always be one step behind usrdquoThe same human creativity will also ensure however that AI subterfuge gets smarter ldquoA woman once told me of how she fooled a university into accepting her PhD thesis by buying a Turnitin antiplagiarism software licence revising and feeding her thesis into it repeatedly until it was no longer flagged by the software Whorsquos to stop someone doing that with AI in booksrdquoDespite that bleak prediction Pinto insists ldquoPeople who write feel the need to write Even if AI is writing some great novel at this point in time Irsquoll be writing my novel anyway And if AI does a better job than me thatrsquos my problem Irsquom going to have to sharpen my skills But you canrsquot put the genie back in the bottlerdquo