Controversy Erupts as Award-Winning Author Denies AI Writing Allegations

The French literary world has been thrown into turmoil following accusations that Canadian-Haitian author Thélyson Orélien used artificial intelligence to compose his debut novel.

Orélien, 38, recently received the prestigious Prix du Roman Fnac – the season’s first major literary award – for his work C’était ça ou mourir (It was either that or die).

He is also under consideration for France’s most esteemed literary honors, the Goncourt and Renaudot prizes, which are expected to be announced shortly.

However, on Tuesday, a relatively obscure collective known as Balance ton Claude (referencing Anthropic’s AI assistant) asserted that the novel was “almost entirely” generated by AI – a claim Orélien has firmly rejected.

“We analyzed multiple passages from various sections of the manuscript and consistently reached the same conclusion: 100% AI-generated,” the group stated on X.

According to this organization – whose membership remains unspecified – the analysis was conducted using a program called Pangram, which they described as “significantly more accurate” than alternatives, with “virtually no possibility of error.”

Born in Haiti and relocated to Montreal in 2010, Orélien immediately refuted the allegations.

“I have always been passionate about creative writing and literature. I cannot fathom why I would resort to using a machine,” he told Libération newspaper. He mentioned he is “assembling evidence” with his publisher to demonstrate his authentic authorship of the book.

“My heritage is Haitian and Caribbean. The imagery, repetitions, and rhythms reflect living language – they are distinctly my own,” he stated.

Publishing house Grasset has also come to his defense, characterizing the allegations as “atrociously damaging to a writer with an exceptional life story” whose “creative work is original and powerful.”

The novel chronicles the journey of a teacher escaping gang violence in Haiti and his experiences before ultimately settling in Canada, where he rediscovers “the right to breathe without fear.”

This dispute echoes a similar controversy involving Trinidadian writer Jamir Nazir, whose Commonwealth Short Story prize was initially revoked in July over suspicions of AI-generated content.

The award was subsequently reinstated after organizers determined the writing was authentic.

Skeptics of Pangram and other AI detection tools argue they are fundamentally unreliable – with different programs frequently producing contradictory results when analyzing identical texts.

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