This unusual year for literary prize organisers has taken a further twist. In recent months, the Commonwealth Prize and the Prix Goncourt have had to address allegations that shortlisted writers may have used AI to produce their work. The writers have denied the allegations but the former went on to award the accused writer; the Académie Goncourt removed Thélyson Orélien’s C’était ça ou mourir (It Was Either That or Die) from consideration. Now Africa’s most prestigious literary award, the Caine Prize for African Writing, has found itself embroiled in allegations about the use of AI in a prizewinning story.

Vara bases the AI claim – which Kundizeza strongly denies – largely on Pangram, an AI-detection software

Vara bases the AI claim – which Kundizeza strongly denies – largely on Pangram, an AI-detection software

Vauhini Vara, a journalist who has covered AI for years, has claimed in the Atlantic that The Blue Fighter by the Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza, which won the £10,000 Caine Prize, is likely AI-generated. Vara bases this claim – which Kundizeza strongly denies – largely on Pangram, an AI-detection software.

Kundizeza was robust in his response to the allegations: “For the avoidance of doubt, I wrote ‘The Blue Fighter.’ I did not use generative AI to write it. It is entirely my own work,” he wrote on X. The Caine Prize has released a statement saying it is investigating the claim.

The story was inspired by the unpublished poem that serves as its epigraph – “my father’s hands” by Vangile Gantsho, whom Kundizeza met at a residency in Ghana last year. (Pangram........

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