Last week, I went on a mission, and it was vital I didn’t get caught. That was the feeling, as I made my way to a shopping centre in Canary Wharf, and suppressed an apology at the till. I was in one of the few Waterstones in London that had a copy of the horror novel Shy Girl in stock. The book was technically not available for sale, having been pulled by its publisher after allegations that it was written using AI. But there was still the odd bookshop yet to remove the title from its shelves.
上周,我去执行一项“秘密任务”,关键是绝不能被发现。带着这种感觉,我一路来到金丝雀码头(Canary Wharf)的一家购物中心,并在收银台前强忍住没有道歉。我去的是伦敦少数几家还有恐怖小说《害羞的女孩》(Shy Girl)库存的Waterstones书店之一。严格来说,这本书其实已经不能出售了:在被指控是用AI写成后,出版商将其下架。但仍有零星几家书店还没把这本书从书架上撤走。