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Bestselling Novelist Dropped from Major Prize over Suspected AI Use

The Thélyson Orélien controversy raises new questions about whether detection software can be trusted

Another day, another author accused of using artificial intelligence to create fiction.

This time, the controversy surrounds C’était ça ou mourir, the first novel by Haitian Canadian author Thélyson Orélien, which has already become a huge success in France. On September 26, the prestigious Académie Goncourt announced it was dropping the title from the longlist for its eponymous literary prize because the prize administrators had concluded it was written with the help of AI. The AI-detection software Pangram determined there was a 100 percent chance the novel was at least in part AI generated.

The author denies using AI, and his French publisher, Grasset, has come out strongly in his defence. Grasset said in a statement that it “strongly objected” to the allegations, which it characterized as “malicious.” The Globe and Mail quoted the French publisher as calling the accusations against Orélien “fake news.” His original French-language Canadian publisher, by contrast, has taken a more measured response to the allegations. The Quebec publisher, Les Éditions du Boréal, told the New York Times, “[A]t this stage, it is impossible for us to confirm or deny the allegations the author is facing.” They went on to say that it is important “not to draw hasty conclusions.”

This is not the first time an award-nominated author has faced accusations of using AI to create written work. Earlier this year, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize encountered criticism after Jamir Nazir’s regional winner, “The Serpent in the Grove,” was accused by social media users of having been written with AI. After a review that included interviews with all the regional winners and examinations of early drafts, edits, and time-stamped emails, the organization that runs the award decided there was no basis to believe Nazir used AI in his writing. The story went on to win the overall Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

In a post focusing on the Commonwealth prize, the AI detection site Pangram noted other examples of the site........

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