Novelist Thélyson Orélien rejects AI claims after bestseller pulled from French prize list
Summary
Novelist Thélyson Orélien denied claims that he used artificial intelligence (AI) to write his bestselling French novel, which was removed from a major French literary prize list amid controversy. He acknowledged past plagiarism mistakes from earlier works but insisted his novel was written entirely by him, with no AI help.Key Facts
- Thélyson Orélien, a Haitian-Canadian writer, was accused of using AI to write his novel "C'était ça ou mourir" ("It Was Either That Or Die").
- His book was withdrawn from the shortlist for the French Goncourt prize because an AI detection tool showed a high chance AI was used.
- Orélien said he only used software to help research foreign expressions, but no part of the book’s sentences or story came from a machine.
- He began writing the novel in 2017 and finished the first draft in 2019, before popular AI text generators like ChatGPT existed.
- His publisher could neither confirm nor deny if AI was used in the book.
- Tests by different AI detectors gave mixed results about whether the text was AI-generated.
- Orélien admitted to plagiarism in earlier writings, offered an apology, and said he was immature at that time.
- The controversy has raised broader questions about AI’s role in writing and the reliability of tools that detect AI-generated text.
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