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entertainment

Goncourt prize drops bestselling novel after author accused of using AI

France's Académie Goncourt has removed Thelyson Orelien's smash-hit debut novel from its longlist after accusations the book was written with AI — claims the Haitian-Canadian author denies, calling the campaign racially motivated.

By Maya Lindqvist · · 2 min read

The organisers of the prestigious Prix Goncourt said on Friday they had removed a smash-hit novel by Haitian-Canadian author Thelyson Orelien from their longlist after accusations he used artificial intelligence to write it.

Orelien denied using AI to write “C’était ça ou mourir” (“It Was Either That or Die”), as the allegations ignited a debate about race, literary merit and originality that has roiled the French literary establishment. He has suggested the campaign against him is racially motivated and an “attempt to silence my voice,” and has promised to produce a file that will “prove” he wrote the book himself.

The accusations about AI use were made this week by a little-known X account, “Balance ton Claude.” Essayist Samuel Fitoussi later claimed ownership of the account, saying he managed it with other unidentified individuals. The account said running passages through the AI detection tool Pangram showed the novel “was written almost entirely by artificial intelligence” — though some experts say the reliability of AI detection tools is questionable.

The AI accusations were followed by reports that Orelien had committed plagiarism in earlier works. La Presse said that a 2012 short story by Orelien had plagiarised passages from a book by French author Louis Pauwels, while a 2013 opinion piece copied from The Philippine Star newspaper. Orelien has yet to respond to those accusations and did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

The Paris-based Académie Goncourt said it had taken note of the AI and plagiarism accusations and had decided to remove his novel “to preserve the integrity of the Goncourt Prize and that of the Académie, whose central role is to promote and honour literature written by women and men.” It said the decision showed it was fully against the “creation of texts generated with the assistance of AI,” adding it would make no further comment before October 6, when it announces its shortlist.

The debut novel by the Haitian-born author tells the story of a Haitian migrant who travels north through Latin America before ending up in Canada. It has won a host of other literary awards and was due to be translated into multiple languages. His French and Canadian publishers initially offered Orelien their full support over the AI allegations; they did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

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