Thirteen professional authors, including science-fiction writers Ken Liu and Robin Sloan, are facing online backlash after their participation in a 2022 Google research study resurfaced on social media. The Wordcraft Writers Workshop, run by Google's DeepMind division, asked the writers to trial an AI-assisted editing tool built on the LaMDA language model, the predecessor to Google Gemini. Since public attitudes towards generative AI have hardened considerably in creative industries over the past four years, news of the study has provoked anger among readers and fellow writers, with some branding the participants as having betrayed the profession.

Under nondisclosure agreements, the writers were given eight weeks in 2022 to produce a short story using a tool called Wordcraft, described by one participant as resembling Microsoft Word with a built-in chatbot; use of the AI was optional, and at least one author reportedly wrote without any AI-generated text. The stories and an accompanying white paper were published on the Magenta research project's website. The backlash erupted after author Lily Lachance posted a link to the study on Bluesky on 6 August, accusing the participants of legitimising what she called a "plagiarism machine"; the post went viral, prompting other users to compile "name and shame" lists of the 13 writers and calls for a boycott. Participants declined to disclose their compensation, and Google has not responded to requests for comment.