Goncourt Academy removes novel from prize consideration amid AI, plagiarism claims

The French Académie Goncourt has removed Haitian Canadian author Thélyson Orélien’s novel from consideration for its prestigious prize amid allegations of artificial intelligence use and plagiarism.

The academy announced the decision on Sept. 25, citing the allegations and what it described as several analyses indicating the novel C’était ça ou mourir was likely largely produced by AI.

Orélien, 38, denies using AI to write the book. He has said he would provide documentation about how the book was written.

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He has also said the accusations were an attack on his voice and described experiencing racist attacks since arriving in France.

The removal follows reports in French and Canadian media of past instances of plagiarism in works Orélien published more than a decade ago.

His Quebec publisher, Éditions du Boréal, has changed its position on the matter.

In a statement issued Sept. 24, Boréal said it could not confirm or deny the allegations that AI was used to write the novel.

The publisher said it had worked with Orélien to assemble documentation about the writing process but could not provide a definitive answer at this point.

Boréal said its own editorial process did not use artificial intelligence. It also said the allegations of plagiarism involving Orélien’s earlier work were a serious concern and that plagiarism is unacceptable.

The publisher has suspended promotional activities around the book, citing hateful messages and personal attacks against Orélien. The novel remains available for purchase.

The AI allegations surfaced Sept. 21 with an anonymous account on X called “Balance ton Claude.” The account said it had analyzed passages from Orélien’s novel using Pangram, an AI-detection tool, and reported extremely high probabilities that the text had been generated by AI.

CBC News later said it replicated the experiment with different excerpts and obtained similar results.

Pangram co-founder Max Spero told Le Monde that an analysis of the full novel produced a 95% probability of AI-generated text. But the results are not, by themselves, proof of how the novel was written.

Alexandre Gefen, a researcher at France’s CNRS who studies literature and AI, said proving whether a literary work was produced by AI can be extremely difficult.

He described the issue as potentially “indémontrable,” underscoring the limits of trying to establish authorship through detection tools alone.

The AI controversy expanded after La Presse and Radio-Canada examined writings Orélien published in Canadian and French media between 2012 and 2014.

La Presse reported that a 2013 column published under Orélien’s name was, in almost its entirety, a lightly edited translation of an earlier article published by The Philippine Star.

Radio-Canada’s fact-checking team, Décrypteurs, reported similarities in several texts published by Orélien. One earlier text, Où va le monde, which received a Radio-Canada public prize, was found to contain phrases from Le Matin des magiciens, a 1960 book by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier.

The controversy has already affected Orélien’s literary career. The Salon du livre de l’Estrie in Quebec withdrew Orélien’s invitation as an honorary guest after the plagiarism reports.

Before the controversy, C’était ça ou mourir had emerged as a major literary success in France. The novel topped French bestseller lists and sold about 35,000 copies, according to The Conversation. It also won the Prix du roman Fnac.

The book remains available for purchase, and Orélien continues to deny using AI to write it.

With files from The Haitian Times