An illustration generated by artificial intelligence (AI) ended up on the cover of a novel, causing the surprise of an author and his publishing house, which acquired the rights.

On Wednesday, author and journalist Samuel Larochelle shared on social networks the cover of his next novel, Elias and Justine, to be published on September 13 by Éditions Druide.

The illustration shows a man and a woman whose faces are hidden under a pastel pink cloud. “I love this cover,” he said in his post.

Everyone involved in the project, including the author, was unaware that the image had been generated by computer, said the president of Éditions Druide, Luc Roberge, in an interview with La Presse.

It was the reactions of the public that put them on the alert. After that thousands of copies of the novel have already been printed. “We didn’t have [artificial intelligence] on our radar,” Roberge points out.

As is often the case in publishing, the illustration had been found in an image bank. “A few months ago, I did some research to orient the cover page. I found this image inspiring and thought it represented the idea of ​​the book well. The publishing house decided to use it to create the cover page: the team bought the rights to use the image bank and asked a graphic designer to create the cover,” explained Samuel Larochelle in a long status posted on Facebook.

A mention in the image’s credit did indeed say that it was created by computer, but no one had noticed it until now.

Online, the author claimed that discussions were underway as to the fate of thousands of copies already printed. “At the moment, we are in reflection around that. We have to talk to the teams in the field and to the booksellers, ”says Luc Roberge.

According to him, the novel does not deserve to be “immolated” for an unfortunate mistake. The incident should, however, serve as a warning to the publishing community. Artificial intelligence continues to make progress that will quickly need to be marked.

For example: how to ensure the authenticity of a work? Can artificial intelligence be used for certain purposes? Above all, there is the fear that artificial intelligence will replace creators.

For several years, the appearance of software such as Dall-E, Midjourney or Stability AI has changed the virtual landscape of the visual arts. Stunning images, created from a few words, abound on the web.

“It is certain that from now on, it is something that we will have to discuss. We don’t want to harm the work of the creators,” said editor Anne-Marie Villeneuve, who worked on Samuel Larochelle’s novel.

Visibly shaken, the author lamented his “naivety” in the face of “the rise of artificial intelligence.” “I hope that this situation, resulting from our clumsiness, will raise awareness in the whole community. The use of AI may be even more insidious than I imagined; we must pay attention to our blind spots,” he wrote.

La Presse has written several articles on artificial intelligence in the visual arts. Last year, Tristan Péloquin conducted a survey on the creation of original works from a bank of existing works.