Zimbabwean author denies using AI to write award-winning story

Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza has vehemently denied using artificial intelligence to craft his short story, "The Blue Fighter," which secured the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing last year. The claim emerged a week after Kundizeza clinched the £10,000 award (Ksh. 1,687,400). Initially, The Atlantic published an article alleging that Pangram, an AI-detection software, confirmed Kundizeza's work was entirely generated by AI.

Kundizeza clarified on X, "For the avoidance of doubt, I wrote The Blue Fighter." The controversy has sparked outrage on social media, with Caine Prize chair Ellah Wakatama expressing shock over the lack of thorough investigation before The Atlantic published its piece. Wakatama urged The Atlantic to invest more time in research to substantiate their claims before tarnishing the award and the winning author.

Zimbabwean writer Joe Ruzvidzo, whose novel 'Welcome to Anywhere' was published last year, backed Kundizeza, urging an end to "literary stop-and-frisk." Nigerian publisher Modupe Daramola emphasized the disproportionate scrutiny faced by Black and African writers. The Caine Prize's chair explained that submissions are not checked for AI but writers attest to the originality of their work.

Wakatama cautioned that Pangram, while not yet fully tested, should only be used as an initial flag for further investigation. Vara admitted that AI-detection tools, including Pangram, are not 100% accurate and recommended considering them as preliminary indicators. Despite the accusations, Kundizeza maintained that the stylistic elements in "The Blue Fighter," such as sentence constructions and metaphors, are characteristic of human writing and not AI-generated.