Big Five publishers quietly use Claude and ChatGPT as staff revolt
nordicinst · x · 2026-10-10
WIRED reports that at least three of the Big Five US publishers—HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette—are quietly using LLMs like Claude and ChatGPT to email literary agents, write publicity and back-cover copy, design cover art, and generate marketing materials, often without disclosure or author consent.
Based on interviews with over two dozen anonymous workers: HarperCollins senior leaders bought Claude licenses months ago but "quickly realized they didn't know how to implement them," pushing junior staff to champion the tech. Meanwhile, publicized cases of authors canceled for using LLMs are "just the tip of the iceberg"—every imprint has similar stories that never made the news. The gap between public AI resistance and behind-the-scenes adoption is fueling staff pushback.
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