France’s Top Literary Prize Drops Novel Over AI and Plagiarism Claims

France’s Académie Goncourt on Friday removed Canadian Haitian writer Thélyson Orélien’s debut novel from its longlist, citing plagiarism allegations and findings that the book was “in all likelihood, very largely the product of artificial intelligence.”

The decision from the Goncourt, France’s oldest and best-known literary prize, comes days after an anonymous X account accused the novel of being AI-generated.

The book, “C’était ça ou mourir” (It Was Either That or Die) by the Québécois writer of Haitian origin, had been one of the season’s French-language hits, winning multiple prizes.

In a statement on Sept. 25, the academy said it acted “to preserve the integrity of the Prix Goncourt and that of the Academy, whose central role is to promote and honour literature written by women and men.”

It pointed to “plagiarisms of which its author has been guilty over time and which have just been revealed,” as well as “the convergent findings of several analyses by researchers and journalists of good faith.”

The withdrawal, it said, was meant “to send a clear message” that the academy does “not endorse or sanction in any way the creation of texts generated with the help of AI.”

The controversy began on Sept. 21 when the X account Balance Ton Claude said the detection tool Pangram had flagged passages throughout the manuscript as “100 percent AI.”

The account said it tested several excerpts “at various points in the manuscript, and got almost always the same result.”

It also said that four texts Orélien wrote in 2014 received an AI score of zero percent on the same tool.

Essayist Samuel Fitoussi later claimed ownership of the account, saying he managed it with other unidentified individuals.

“To all those who accuse us of harming Orélien, consider instead the author who spent hundreds of hours on his manuscript to write a magnificent book, one that deserved the Goncourt Prize, and which he didn’t win,” he wrote in a Sept. 25 post on X.

“Although rather techno-optimistic, I fear that after several millennia of civilization based on writing, AI will cause the disappearance of reading and writing.”

However, on Thursday, Boréal told Radio-Canada it had now suspended the promotional activities surrounding the book.

“Unfortunately, it is impossible for us at this stage to overturn or confirm the allegations that the author is facing,” it said.

A statement circulated by his French publisher, Éditions Grasset, on Sept. 22 to AFP, and reported in Le Figaro, said that the “malicious” comments about AI have “hurt the writer terribly with an exceptional career.”

The debut novel tells the story ​of a Haitian immigrant who travels north through ⁠Latin America before ending up in Canada.

“In the United States, he encounters the brutality of ICE, a symbol of a system opposed to immigrants,” said Fnac, France’s big cultural retailer, in a review of the book.

The Epoch Times has contacted Éditions Grasse and Les Éditions du Boréal for comment.