A court in southern India has ordered an investigation into allegations that a new public library in Tamil Nadu bought hundreds of books suspected of being generated by artificial intelligence. The Madras High Court has directed the state's anti-corruption agency to examine the purchases and freeze bank accounts linked to the publisher accused of supplying them. The controversy centres on the Periyar Arivulagam library in Coimbatore, built at a cost of about 3 billion rupees ($34m) and inaugurated on 16 October. The state's school education minister has called it potentially India's first AI scam, though it remains unclear whether AI was used to produce any of the disputed books.
Those pressing for action point to a pattern that is hard to explain innocently. The novelist Perumal Murugan, whose books Pyre and One Part Woman have won international recognition, alleged that nearly 1,800 books in the library's Tamil section came from a little-known publisher called Agal Vilakku Pathippagam. He said many carried unfamiliar authors' names, unusually high prices and questionable ISBNs. One title, a 300-page guide to life through the classical Tamil work Naladiyar, was priced at 1,445 rupees and misdescribes the work as a poet. A book at a library in Madurai names the economist Jean Drèze as author, though he told The Hindu he had not written it. BBC Tamil found no signs identifying either publisher at its Chennai address, and more than 160 writers, researchers and publishers have called for an independent inquiry. A total of 523 books have already been removed from Chennai's Connemara Public Library.
There are, however, reasons for caution before declaring a scam. The BBC reported that it remains unclear whether any of the disputed books were produced with AI at all, and the errors cited so far could equally reflect poor editing or careless publishing. The proprietor of Agal Vilakku has declined to comment, saying the matter is before the courts. The affair has also become a political fight. The state government blames the previous Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam administration for the purchases, while the DMK denies wrongdoing, calls the allegations politically motivated and has demanded an investigation of its own. The library was inaugurated by the current chief minister, C Joseph Vijay. Removing books after preliminary checks is also a sign that the system has responded, with an internal audit of public library collections now ordered and anti-corruption officials examining procurement records.
The case matters because it points to a problem that libraries, schools and governments everywhere will face. AI tools can generate entire books quickly and cheaply, but they can also produce false information and invented references, and public bodies that buy in bulk may not have the checks to tell the difference. The writers' statement asks how the books passed through a process involving expert committees, price negotiations and several levels of review, and demands release of procurement records and recovery of public money if funds were misused. The result could shape how India's states buy books and how publishers prove authorship.
Whether the Tamil Nadu books were written by machines is not yet known. What is known is that a 3 billion rupee library is under investigation and hundreds of titles have been pulled from shelves. The inquiry will show whether this was fraud, poor oversight or both.
