Novelist Thélyson Orélien denies AI authorship after book withdrawn from Goncourt list
Orélien said no sentence was generated by AI, though his bestseller was removed from the Goncourt shortlist following detector claims.
Key facts
- Orélien stated that not a single sentence in his novel was created by a machine.
- The novel 'C’était ça ou mourir' was removed from the Goncourt prize shortlist after Pangram flagged it as 100 percent AI‑generated.
- Orélien admitted to 'unacceptable mistakes' concerning earlier plagiarism accusations.
- He began writing in late 2017 and finished a first draft in 2019, before AI services like ChatGPT existed.
On Tuesday, Haitian‑Canadian novelist Thélyson Orélien said that no sentence in his debut novel was written by a machine. He made the statement after the book was withdrawn from the Goncourt prize shortlist, which France 24 reported.
The novel, titled 'C’était ça ou mourir', had been slated for translation into more than 20 countries, according to France 24. France 24 noted that the AI detector Pangram indicated a 100 percent probability that the text was computer‑generated.
Orélien also acknowledged 'unacceptable mistakes' related to earlier plagiarism accusations, as reported by France 24. He said he began writing the book in late 2017 and completed a first draft of over 300 pages in 2019, before AI services such as ChatGPT were available.
His Canadian publisher Boreal said it could not categorically confirm or deny the AI allegations, France 24 reported. France 24 said the case is among the largest AI scandals in the literary world, raising questions about detection tools.
Context
France 24 described the Goncourt as a prestigious French literary prize. It also reported that Pangram is considered one of the most reliable AI detectors.
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