Tamil Nadu libraries bought over 50,000 books from shady publishers
Public libraries in Tamil Nadu have been buying books allegedly written using artificial intelligence tools, according to the outlet.
Public libraries in Tamil Nadu have been buying books allegedly written using artificial intelligence tools, according to the outlet. Writer Perumal Murugan found fabricated content on the shelves of Coimbatore's Periyar Arivulagam library, including an invented chief minister history, a Nandi statue said to have been unearthed at Keezhadi, and the post-Sangam verse collection Naladiyar recast as the work of a poet.
The outlet reported that about 2,200 books from publisher Agal Vilakku, whose listed office address traced to a residential suburb in Chennai, were removed from Tenkasi's District Central Library. An official in Tenkasi said librarians hesitated to flag the purchases because higher authorities had pushed for them and for speedy payment, with most books priced above Rs 1,000. Government sources told the outlet that district central libraries across the state held more than 50,000 books from such publishers.
The Madras High Court ordered an FIR, saying compliance with its 2024 directions, including the book procurement policy, would have prevented the purchases. The outlet noted that the procurement policy's unfair practices clause lists tricks such as altered titles and inflated page counts but makes no explicit provision for AI fabrications.
Here's the part that should stop every author cold: a Nandi statue that was never unearthed, a chief minister history never recorded, a classical poet reinvented by a machine — and the taxpayer picked up the tab. This isn't a story about bad books slipping through. It's a story about a procurement system that didn't look, because looking was inconvenient for someone. If you write for libraries, for schools, for any publicly funded shelf, this is your early warning: the fakes are getting cheaper to make and harder to catch, and the burden of proof is about to land on real authors to show they're real.
From the Coral Wire edition of Fri, Nov 13 2026 · Coral Index 61/100 (Tailwinds building)