Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt walked back remarks that sparked thousands of boycott calls after he appeared on “Today.” In a later interview and an emailed statement, Daunt said the chain does not sell AI-written books as far as it is aware, requires publishe
James Daunt’s message was meant to be simple: sell the book, don’t sell deception.
But when he said on “Today” with Jenna Bush Hager that Barnes & Noble would stock AI-written books “as long as an AI-written book says it’s an AI-written book,” the clip traveled fast—and so did the anger. By Wednesday, thousands of calls to boycott the bookseller had flooded social media.
Daunt. the chief executive credited with breathing new life into the retailer amid declining sales. is now clarifying what he meant. In his account. the backlash is tied to misinterpretations of a “highly edited version” of what the company CEO “actually said. ” which aired after his Monday appearance.
The central argument fans and critics latched onto came from his interview on “Today.” In a viral segment. Daunt said. “I have actually no problem selling any book. as long as it doesn’t masquerade or pretend to be something that it isn’t. So, as long as an AI-written book says it’s an AI-written book, then we will stock them.”.
To some authors and former employees. that sounded like a green light for machine-written work—so long as it was labeled. Kathlin Finn. a writer and former employee of the chain. posted on social media saying she would not shop at or promote Barnes & Noble unless it changed its AI policy. Finn wrote: “Hey Barnes & Not Noble. I worked for you and have supported you. but your latest AI decision is extremely disappointing. I will not be shopping or promoting B&N unless you change your AI policy.”.
Author Cristin Bishara, too, framed the moment as a personal and artistic blow. In a post, Bishara wrote, “As an author this [is] the most depressing news. I’ve been saying for a long time that this was coming. People told me I was overreacting. And I had a feeling it would start with a cute round table at the front of a B&N.”.
Another social media user pushed back harder on the idea that labeling resolves the moral and economic concerns around generative AI. They wrote that Daunt saying Barnes & Noble would stock AI-generated books if they were labeled and “aren’t ‘ripping off somebody else’ is wild considering all generative AI is ripping off someone else.”.
In response, Daunt told The Times that the wave of backlash is based on misinterpretations of what he said, adding that only a “highly edited version” of his remarks had aired.
In an emailed statement, Daunt offered a more direct position. He said Barnes & Noble does not sell AI books, “as far as we are aware.” The chain, he wrote, “demand[s] that publishers label any books that are AI generated,” and takes “active measures to exclude all AI generated books.”
But Daunt also left the door open in specific circumstances. He said Barnes & Noble “will sell AI generated books if there is clear demand” and that the company would not “ban reputable books published by reputable publishers. even if AI generated. should these be published. labeled and there be clear evidence of customer demand.”.
He added that Barnes & Noble thinks it is “very unlikely” there will be customer demand for AI-generated books and that reputable publishers will publish them.
At the same time, Daunt argued that the company’s philosophy is about principle rather than panic. “The argument is nuanced. and perhaps over nuanced. but there are important principles that have to be balanced and I believe we do so as sensibly and thoughtfully as is possible. ” he said. He then tied the store’s stance to a warning he has emphasized before: “Book banning is a clear and present danger. so we are very careful with demands to ban any books” while also remaining vigilant “not to sell AI generated books that masquerade to be by real authors.”.
The dust-up lands in the middle of broader pressure on the publishing industry from creators who say AI threatens authorship and the economics of writing. Last year. in June 2025. more than 70 authors issued a call to action to big-five publishers—Penguin Random House. HarperCollins. Simon & Schuster. Hachette Book Group. and Macmillan—urging them to pledge they will never release books created by machines.
Authors Lauren Groff, R.F. Kuang, Emma Straub, and Emily Henry were among those petitioners. The letter described the creative stakes bluntly: “At its simplest level. our job as artists is to respond to the human experience. But the art we make is a commodity, and our world wants things quickly, cheaply, and on demand.”.
It continued with a warning about what the authors see as a fundamental mismatch between storytelling and lived experience: “We are rushing toward a future where our novels. our biographies. our poems and our memoirs — our records of the human experience — are ‘written’ by artificial intelligence models that. by definition. cannot know what it is to be human. To bleed, or starve, or love. …“.
The petitioners also alleged how AI learns from existing work: “Every time a prompt is entered into AI. the language that bot uses to respond was created in part through the synthesis of art that we. the undersigned. have spent our careers crafting. Taken without our consent, without payment, without even the courtesy of acknowledgment.”.
The controversy has played out in real-world publishing decisions as well. In March. Hachette pulled “Shy Girl” from publication after widespread allegations that the horror novel appeared to be AI-generated and was swiftly scrubbed from Amazon and the Hachette website. The book’s author. Mia Ballard. denied that she had relied on AI to pen the book. but she said an acquaintance she had hired to edit the novel used AI.
A Hachette spokeswoman said, per the New York Times, “Hachette remains committed to protecting original creative expression and storytelling.”
Daunt has argued that Barnes & Noble’s role is not to become an arbiter of culture. Last year. he spoke with BBC about AI in publishing and bookselling. saying the company sees a huge proliferation of AI-generated content and that “most of it is not books that we should be selling.” He also said that as a bookseller. the company sells what publishers publish. and that he’d be surprised by efforts to put forth an “AI-generated piece of nonsense. ” while ultimately telling BBC that “the decision on reading material would lie with the reader.”.
“We don’t dictate, and we don’t dictate around politics or any other particular issues around books,” Daunt said. “We leave it up to the reader to decide.”
Now. as the boycott calls build and Daunt’s clarified line gets tested in the court of public opinion. the central tension remains the same: whether labeling is enough. and whether selling AI-generated books in the narrow circumstances Daunt described can still feel. to critics. like an endorsement of something artists say should not be sold at all.
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