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The literary community on Book Threads is in an uproar following the reveal of author Paul Smith’s upcoming young adult novel, Steps to Tomorrow.

While the book is marketed as an empowering story about its main character, Zola, navigating bodily autonomy, the AI-generated cover art posted by Smith features a female chimp with physical traits that critics point out directly mirror offensive caricatures of Black American women.

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00:00The book threads community is absolutely on fire over a new young adult novel about a pregnant
00:04chimpanzee. The book titled Steps to Tomorrow is marketed as a story about Zola and her journey
00:09with bodily autonomy. But the cover the author posted has people wondering what's going on.
00:14Because the very obvious AI champ that was generated for the cover has people pointing
00:18out that it was generated with features directly mirroring those of black American women. And the
00:23author named Paul stated he is a former ICU nurse living with PTSD and wrote this book to heal from
00:28his own maternity care trauma. But now with all the backlash Paul is doubling down calling critics
00:32monsters for attacking a disabled author. But an alleged insider hints that this is not Paul's
00:37first time. Now the community thinks he might be rage baiting for marketing especially as one of
00:42his posts has an update showing a completely different real cover. So is this a genuine
00:47author mistake or does Paul just know exactly how to get his name out there? Share your thoughts
00:51and follow what's trending for more updates.
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