Generative artificial intelligence is changing the media landscape from movies, to art and to books.
On May 18, 2026, a Today Show interview with Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt went viral for his seemingly positive outlook on selling books written and produced with generative artificial intelligence. He stated that he did not have problems with stocking any book, as long as it is transparent about how it was written and if it's in high demand.
A 12-second clip of that interview is circulating online, and Barnes & Noble has received backlash about the comment on social media. Some consumers have even retaliated by boycotting the bookstore.
“Welp, gonna be ending my Barnes & Noble membership. And for everyone saying, ‘Just don’t buy the AI books,’ that’s not the point. The fact that a bookstore would even consider this is disgusting. Shame on you, @barnesandnoble,” @erikaadults said on Threads.
“(We’re) all witnessing how AI is slowly taking over literature — a Nobel Prize-winning author admitting to using AI to write her book, Barnes & Noble CEO saying that he’ll sell AI-written books, authors using AI for the covers of their books — just AI slops everywhere nowadays,” @Nora said on X.
“Guys, you don't want Barnes & Noble to go out of business. They’re the only thing standing between Amazon and the indies. If they’re gone, it really will be only Amazon. Make it clear to them we don't want AI books, but I don’t think a boycott is a good idea,” @typicalbrunette said on Threads.
Beyond online reactions, his words have also made their mark on independent sellers in Utah Valley.
“In the book world, I personally don’t think AI has a space,” Lauren Barney, an employee at Planted in Pages, said. “AI is trained from real people. So they are taking and sorting ideas and content created by humans.”
Daunt made his statement in light of customers' and authors' possibly demanding for generative AI content.
“He sounds just so out of touch,” Megan Andrus, with The Pumpkin Cottage, said. “He’s talking as if people want to read AI books. AI just is not what readers want."
Planted in Pages and The Pumpkin Cottage are independent bookstores located in Provo and Springville, respectively. Both businesses opened in 2024.
Their owners aren’t strangers to generative AI, and they have seen its evolution affecting their establishments.
“It’s so hard as AI keeps getting … better? I just see so many people getting frustrated with being fed AI slop, and so then they accuse everything of being AI slop,” Andrus said.
Andrus shared that her first exposure to generative AI as a business owner was AI-generated coloring books. However, she’s now found herself individually vetting books, their sources and correlating artwork before stocking her shelves.
“Authors are always approaching indie bookstores,” Andrus said. “If I find they’ve used generative AI with their book covers or anything like that, I will ask them to make the necessary changes to allow their books on my shelves.”
Planted in Pages managers, Barney and Tayler McCrary, have also turned down authors who have used AI-generated cover art.
“We have had some authors approach us about carrying their books, and it turns out they’ve used illustrations they make through AI,” Barney said. “We have to have conversations with them that we support artists and real humans, and this is taking away from them.”
However, Barney and McCrary have also seen approaching authors push back against AI-generated literature.
“We have started noticing people writing things like ‘AI wasn’t used in my books,’” McCrary said.
McCrary went on to describe the support she and Barney have received since opening Planted in Pages.
“We get people who travel here who talk about how it takes two hours to get to a bookstore, and they’ll find a bookstore every twenty minutes here,” McCrary said.
Andrus also discussed how she’s seen her bookstore grow from an independent book crawl resource, to an upper-floor hidden gem, to relocating to a bigger and better Springville space on June 20.
“Opening my own bookstore is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. There’s something so human about arriving and hunting and finding what you want to read in a space like this,” Andrus said.
Andrus, Barney and McCrary have turned their respective bookstores into comfy and cozy spaces, specifically designed for their customers to have memorable experiences. They have also received disapproving comments from customers about Barnes & Noble and Daunt’s statement.
“I feel like books are a way to connect with other people and Utah’s really lucky in the bookstore world,” Barney said. “We have had a couple people come in saying that they’re not shopping at Barnes & Noble anymore due to the actions that they’re taking.”
In light of Daunt’s remarks and the retaliation he’s received, Barnes & Noble’s public relations office shared an official statement with the Daily Universe.
“We take active measures to exclude all AI-generated books from our online catalogue and never knowingly order any for stocking in our stores; and we demand that publishers label any books that are AI-generated. This is a straightforward rejection of AI books," the statement said.
Though Barnes & Noble stated that they reject AI-generated books, they also did not explicitly condemn them. This is due to the nuances of what the future of AI will look like.
“The bookseller, of course, decides how to curate their store and evidently, we expect never to have AI-labeled books for sale in these … except perhaps our customers will one day demand that we do," Barnes & Noble's statement said.
In the statement sent to the Daily Universe, Barnes and Noble shared that these possible AI-generated books could include design and computer coding manuals.