Waterstones would stock books created using artificial intelligence, the company’s boss has said, as long as they were clearly labelled, and if customers wanted them.
However, James Daunt, a veteran of the bookselling industry, said he personally did not expect that to happen.
“There’s a huge proliferation of AI generated content and most of it are not books that we should be selling,” he said.
But it would be “up to the reader”.
An explosion in the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, has prompted heated debate in the publishing industry, with writers concerned about the impact on their livelihoods.
In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC’s Big Boss podcast, Daunt said while Waterstones uses AI for logistics they currently try to keep AI generated content out of the shops.
“As a bookseller, we sell what publishers publish, but I can say that instinctively that is something that we would recoil [from],” he said.