France’s most prestigious literary award just made a dramatic move. The Prix Goncourt, often called France’s answer to the Booker Prize, removed Thelyson Orelien’s bestselling novel from its longlist. Judges say the book was “in all likelihood” largely produced by AI, a claim the Haitian-Canadian author strongly denies.
How did an AI claim knock a bestseller out of the race?
The novel, “C’etait Ca ou Mourir” (It Was Either That or Die), follows a man fleeing gang violence in Haiti on a long journey to Canada. It had already won several awards and was headed for translation. This week, a little-known X account called Balance ton Claude accused Orelien of using AI. It ran passages through Pangram, the AI detection tool Substack now uses to scan posts, which flagged the book as almost entirely machine-written.
Essayist Samuel Fitoussi later admitted to being part of the group behind the X account. Reports then surfaced claiming Orelien plagiarized passages in a 2012 short story from French author Louis Pauwels and a 2013 opinion piece from The Philippine Star.
What happens to the book and its author now?
The Goncourt Academy said it acted to protect the prize’s integrity by rejecting texts created with AI’s help. It cited the AI and plagiarism claims behind its decision. According to Reuters, the academy won’t comment further before announcing its shortlist on October 6.
However, Orelien insists he could rewrite the same book with a pen. The case has stirred debate in France over race, literary merit, and originality. The controversy has quickly grown beyond one book, echoing the AI claims that rocked the Commonwealth Short Story Prize earlier this year.
It also raises questions about whether AI detection tools should influence decisions that can affect an author’s career. The US Authors Guild warns that some AI detectors are wildly inaccurate and should never be the only reason to pull a book. The irony is that most readers tend to rate AI-written stories higher, yet they still trust the human label more.