Canadian, French publishers stand by author accused of using AI for prize-winning novel

The publishers of an award-winning novel by Haitian-Canadian author Thelyson Orelien have defended the writer against accusations he used artificial intelligence to write it, and said they stand behind him.

Orelien denied using AI tools to write 'C'etait Ca ou Mourir' (It Was Either That or Die) on Tuesday, a day after a little-known X account called 'Balance ton Claude' said that running passages through AI detection tool Pangram showed the novel "was written almost entirely by artificial intelligence."

The controversy has ignited a debate about race, literary merit and originality that has roiled the French literary establishment.

The novel, Haiti-born Orelien's first, has been longlisted for the prestigious Goncourt prize and won several others.

It tells the story of a Haitian migrant who travels north through Latin America and the United States to Canada.

Denying the accusations against him, Orelien told French daily Liberation that they had come as a surprise, even if he had faced racist attacks ever since arriving in France.

"I did not expect attacks of this kind. I am not sad, but angry," he said. "I am in the process of putting together a dossier with my publishers in France and Quebec to prove that what I am saying is true."

"We stand alongside Thelyson Orelien and thank the readers who continue to place their trust in him," Canadian publisher Editions du Boreal said in a statement.

Orelien's French publisher, Grasset, said it condemned any malicious claims over AI usage, describing them as "deeply hurtful to a writer with an exceptional career."

"The Grasset teams stand alongside this man ... they reaffirm their absolute confidence in him," it said.

Reuters was unable to determine who is behind the Balance ton Claude account, which said in a chat on X that its anonymity helped maintain its independence and freedom to speak out.

"We don't see the connection between AI and skin colour. Should we have stayed silent and allowed artificial intelligence to receive major literary prizes on the grounds that the official author is not white?" it said.

Pangram says it is 99.7 per cent accurate in detecting AI writing, although some experts have questioned the reliability of AI detection software.

Philippe Claudel, the president of the Academie Goncourt which hands out the top French-language literary prize, said no decision had been taken on whether to remove Orelien's novel from the longlist.

"If, by the time of our next meeting on October 6, when we establish the second shortlist, we have information that is indisputable, then of course we will have to consider the matter carefully," he said.

Claudel said it was "almost inevitable" that questions over AI authorship were here to stay and that a charter was needed that "makes it possible to distinguish what has been produced by AI from what has been produced by a human."