Was this award-winning book written by AI? Scandal deepens skepticism in literary world

Thélyson Orélien's debut novel shortlisted for prestigious prizes. Then the allegations started pouring in

A Quebec-based author is at the centre of an artificial intelligence scandal shaking the French literary world and raising questions around how the industry should be using AI — and its detection tools.

Breakthrough star Thélyson Orélien, a Canadian-Haitian poet and author, has been accused of writing his debut novel using generative AI, which he vehemently denies. The scandal comes as C’était ça ou mourir is being considered for various prestigious awards.

The allegation first surfaced Monday – the same day Orélien won the Prix du roman Fnac – on the anonymous X account "Balance ton Claude," which claims to expose AI slop.

The account claims to have analyzed several excerpts from the book using the AI-detector tool Pangram, which found the text was "100 per cent" AI. 

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