You've probably heard about author Mia Ballard. Her debut novel "Shy Girl" has been at the center of a controversy about whether she used AI to help write it. After a New York Times article, her publisher dropped her book. She's since deleted most of her social accounts and gone dark.

This story is much bigger than whether one writer did or didn't use AI. It's about the question of who gets to set the standard in AI and creative work? And more importantly who gets protected, and who gets sacrificed to it?

Subscribe to Drey's excellent substack for sharp reporting and open source investigative journalism into tech and power: https://thedreydossier.substack.com

Read / Watch Drey’s reporting on Shy Girl: https://thedreydossier.substack.com/p/the-shy-girl-ai-scandal-is-way-worse

Follow Drey on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok: @thedreydossier

Read more about the limitations of AI-detection software, and why many of the country's most respected universities have banned it. https://timrequarth.substack.com/p/why-you-shouldnt-trust-ai-detector

Read Thad’s blog post called Shy Girl: The Background to the New York Times Story: https://thefutureofpublishing.com/2026/03/shy-girl-the-background-to-the-new-york-times-story/

Bridget’s SMNTY ep about ShyGirl: What the Shy Girl Conversation Says About AI and Art: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-stuff-mom-never-told-you-21123631/episode/what-the-shy-girl-conversation-says-about-ai-and-art-328745937

Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.

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Publishing is having a trust crisis. With AI accusations swirling around authors like Mia Ballard, whose novel Shy Girl was dropped by her publisher despite her denying any AI use, questions about authenticity in publishing have never felt more urgent. But this kind of chaos isn't new. We saw it coming.

We're revisiting one of our wildest deep dives: the Cait Corrain Goodreads scandal. Corrain had a highly anticipated debut novel, Crown of Starlight, coming out in 2024 — until she admitted to using fake Goodreads accounts to review bomb other writers' forthcoming books. Most of her targets were Black or queer authors. Corrain is white.

The story has a lot of twists and turns, including a fabricated conversation with a completely made-up person that Corrain invented to take the fall.

Canadian author Xiran Jay Zhao was the first to bring it to wider attention, noticing that Crown of Starlight was getting glowing reviews from the same accounts trashing other books — some of which weren't even out yet. Zhao also compiled a 31-page Google document of screenshots and receipts: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1__mO1uqIqcmupBAPKwXDzlUbZIwtY6fKf0S1Y0SNz0E/edit?tab=t.0

Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.

Pre-order our forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com !

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Investigative journalist Karen Hao was covering OpenAI years before most of us had ever heard the words "ChatGPT" or "large language model." Her best-selling book, "Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI," paints a gripping and damning portrait of the company's evolution from a sort of nonprofit to an empire-seeking tech juggernaut, drawing on her deep familiarity with the company as well as candid accounts from insiders.

She is one of the most influential and respected tech journalists covering the AI industry today.

In this interview, she shares the story of how she came to journalism, what she's learned from a decade of covering OpenAI and Sam Altman, and what she sees as the biggest threats of AI to intimacy, the environment, privacy, healthcare, and democracy.

Karen has a new podcast published by the BBC called "The Interface," and it is brilliant. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, or by following this link: https://link.mgln.ai/theinterface-TANGOTI

Conversation with Karen is featured prominently in Bridget's forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships, "Love At First Prompt." Pre-order your copy today at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com !

Let us know what you think about this interview by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.

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Remember the personal essay industrial complex? The 2010s era of Jezebel and xoJane where feminist writers put every raw, messy, private part of themselves on the internet? Lindy West was its brightest star.

Her new memoir, Adult Braces, reckons with what that cost her, and with a marriage that turned out to be more complicated than the happy ending she sold us in her first memoir, Shrill.

Her book sent the internet into a spiral, enraged conservatives, disappointed some feminists, divided the polyamory community, and inspired her husband to send a very intense email to a Slate writer.

Writer and comedian Ashley Ray joins Bridget to talk about the book, the discourse, and what all of it says about feminist writing, parasocial fandom, and whether the personal essay industrial complex of the 2010s has run its course.

Ashley’s Harper’s piece - Lindy West and the Trap of Perfect Polyamory: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a70801519/lindy-west-adult-braces/

Scaachi’s Slate piece - Lindy West’s How-Not-To Guide to Polyamory: https://slate.com/life/2026/03/lindy-west-polyamory-open-marriage-husband-roya.html

She Had a Cat Hair Ball in Her Vagina — or Did She? https://www.thecut.com/2015/09/she-had-cat-hair-in-her-vagina-or-did-she.html

Check out Ashley’s Substack Deep Trouble: https://www.deeptrouble.net/

Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.

Pre-order Bridget's forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com !

Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! || instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc || youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet || bsky.app/profile/tangoti.bsky.social

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In this week's News Roundup, Bridget and Producer Mike cover the tech news stories you might have missed.

Afroman wins lawsuit brought against him by cops who raided his house. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2026-03-19/afroman-verdict-defamation-invasion-of-privacy-lawsuit

Afroman's video "Lemon Pound Cake" https://youtu.be/9xxK5yyecRo?si=P7JWA54zklLCWVnM

Afroman's video "Will You Help Me Repair My Gate" https://youtu.be/oponIfu5L3Y?si=cgLpG_T6A-JPBbW-

Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot cancelled in strangely cruel and surprising manner by Hulu. https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/buffy-reboot-dead-hulu-sarah-michelle-gellar-chloe-zhao-1236692284/

Nicole Kidman glides behind Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend at the Academy Awards, stealing all attention: https://www.threads.com/@rachelarich/post/DV8aFlADT6Q?xmt=AQGzqaZ-H3abT0EW2lfRTONANK8dwciIx844aGm48QTIrQ

Former Rolling Stone editor Noah Schactman lands new job at NYT, despite controversial role in misleading reporting to protect a personal friend. https://www.cjr.org/laurels-and-darts/noah-shachtman-nyt-rolling-stone-baltimore-banner-tristan-king-missing-st-helens-oregon-corruption-scandal-mayor.php

Columbia Journalism Review analysis on Rolling Stone's inaccurate story about campus rape at University of Virginia: https://www.cjr.org/investigation/rolling_stone_investigation.php

Celebrated relationship therapist Esther Perel has a guest on her podcast who is in a relationship with his AI chatbot: https://www.estherperel.com/podcast

Mark Zuckerberg finally calling it quits on the Metaverse (mostly): https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/technology/mark-zuckerbergs-metaverse-vr-horizon-worlds.html

Playwright Jeremy O. Harris called Sam Altman a nazi at a party: https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/tracewilliamcowen/jeremy-o-harris-openai-sam-altman-nazi

Specifically, Friedrich Flick: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Flick

Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.

Pre-order our forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com !

Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! || instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc || youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet || bsky.app/profile/tangoti.bsky.social

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Not long ago, Sam Altman was bragging about how OpenAI doesn't make sex bots. Then, just two months later, announced the company would be rolling out erotic content on ChatGPT.

So how's that pivot into adult content going? In the words of Dorinda Medley: "Not well, bitch."

Soon after the announcement, there was a high-profile exit from OpenAI — over concerns the company wasn't handling the adult content pivot responsibly. And now Sam Atlman says it’s been postponed.

So what does it all mean? Bridget sat down with friends Samantha and Anney over at SMNTY to break it all down.

Pre-order our forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com !

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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In this week's News Roundup, Bridget and Producer Joey cover the tech news stories you might have missed.

Do Normies Have The Right to Read Heated Rivalry Fanfic: https://www.gq.com/story/heated-rivalry-fanfic-privacy

A writer is suing Grammarly for turning her and other authors into ‘AI editors’ without consent: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/12/a-writer-is-suing-grammarly-for-turning-her-and-other-authors-into-ai-editors-without-consent/

He Tried to Stop Adobe From Training its AI on His Photo Library – He Lost: https://petapixel.com/2026/03/11/he-tried-to-stop-adobe-from-training-its-ai-on-his-photo-library-he-lost/

Viral 'Quittr' Porn Addiction App Exposed the Masturbation Habits of Hundreds of Thousands of Users: https://www.404media.co/viral-quittr-porn-addiction-app-exposed-the-masturbation-habits-of-hundreds-of-thousands-of-users/

Panic World’s episode on the NoFap movement: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6qXJNaFl2dIzwXC9h8no4p

Uber’s women-only option goes nationwide in the US: https://apnews.com/article/uber-women-safety-9c974f92dfd7fb25d504d173b2429d06

Listen to Alison Turkos on TANGOTI: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/she-was-sexually-assaulted-during-a-lyft-ride-now/id1520715907?i=1000555658403

Buffer Report: Declines in Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads Engagement: https://www.globaldatinginsights.com/featured/buffer-report-declines-in-instagram-linkedin-threads-engagement/

Let us know what you think about these stories by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify!

Pre-order our forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com !

Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! || instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc || youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet || bsky.app/profile/tangoti.bsky.social

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