Orélien denies AI wrote his prize-winning novel

Haitian-Canadian author Thélyson Orélien has denied allegations that artificial intelligence wrote most of his debut novel, C’était ça ou mourir, after the book won France’s Prix du Roman Fnac. He says he is preparing documentation with his publishers in France and Canada to support his account of the novel’s authorship. The accusation was made by the anonymous X account Balance ton Claude, which said it tested passages from the book using Pangram, an AI-detection tool. The account claimed the passages were identified as entirely AI-generated. That result is an allegation, not proof that a machine wrote the novel; the available reporting does not establish that AI was used. Orélien rejected the claim in comments to Libération, saying he had no reason to use a machine to write. He has also said that the novel’s imagery, repetition and rhythms reflect Haitian and Caribbean literary traditions. His publishers, Grasset in France and Éditions du Boréal in Canada, have expressed support for him. Grasset described the allegations as harmful and maintained that the work was original. The authorship dispute remains unresolved.