France's Goncourt Prize Removes Novel from Shortlist Over AI Writing Claims

The organizers of France's Goncourt Prize announced that they have removed Haitian-Canadian author Talysson Aurélien's bestselling novel "C'etait Ca ou Mourir" from the preliminary shortlist. This follows accusations that the book was written using AI, which Aurélien denies. The controversy has sparked debate in French literary circles about race, literary value, and originality.

The accusations were first raised by an X account called "Balance ton Claude." Essayist Samuel Fitoussi later said he owns the account, which he runs with others who remain anonymous. The account claimed that after inputting passages from the novel into AI detection tool Pangram, results showed the book was "almost entirely written by AI." Some experts question whether AI detection tools are reliable.

Aurélien was subsequently accused of plagiarism in his earlier works. The Goncourt Academy in Paris said it removed the book to protect the award's credibility, stressing its firm opposition to AI-generated text in creative writing. The shortlist will be announced on October 6.