Bestselling novel removed from France’s biggest literary prize over claims AI wrote it

A little-known X account helped boot a bestselling debut novel from France’s most coveted book prize after it claimed AI wrote the thing.

If you’ve spent any time around games lately, you’ll know that accusation gets slung with abandon, and earlier this month an indie dev had to explain his “AI” voice actor was actually his wife.

Thélyson Orélien’s C’était ça ou mourir isn’t some small fry, though, since the claim surfaced the very day it won the Prix du roman Fnac, and then the Goncourt weighed in.

Goncourt drops Thélyson Orélien novel over AI and plagiarism claims

The Paris-based Académie Goncourt pulled the novel from its 16-title longlist on Friday, September 25. It leaned on analyses from researchers and journalists it deemed credible, which found the book was most likely written largely by AI.

The academy also flagged plagiarism reports about Orélien’s earlier work, and it stressed that the prize exists to honour literature “written by women and men.”

The whole saga kicked off when an account called Balance ton Claude fed passages into the detector Pangram and announced the novel was almost entirely machine-made, although some experts doubt such tools are reliable at all.

Essayist Samuel Fitoussi later claimed he ran the account alongside unnamed collaborators. After that, La Presse reported that a 2012 short story by Orélien had lifted passages from French author Louis Pauwels, while a 2013 opinion piece borrowed from The Philippine Star.

The fallout stings all the more because the book had topped France’s bestseller list and sold around 35,000 copies, while his French publisher insists he finished a draft by 2019, well before generative AI went mainstream.

Orélien, a Quebec-based Haitian-Canadian writer, has flatly denied using AI, yet his publisher Boréal halted promotion and admitted it couldn’t say whether AI touched the manuscript before it arrived. He has since ducked out of further comment and told The Canadian Press he wants to focus on his physical and mental health. Meanwhile, the academy won’t say another word until it unveils its shortlist on October 6.

The Goncourt isn’t the first to sever ties over AI suspicions this year, after all, since Ironmouse cancelled her Neverness to Everness sponsorship after claiming the devs lied to her about AI use.