An Oddly Old-Fashioned Literary AI Scandal
The French debate over a novelist who likely used AI shows how much has—and hasn’t—changed.
In 1968, Yambo Ouologuem, an African writer, was celebrated in Paris for his novel Le devoir de violence, which won France's second-most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Renaudot. The novel was later found to contain nearly word-for-word similarities to Graham Greene's 1934 novel It's a Battlefield, suggesting potential plagiarism.
Ouologuem's publisher apologized for the accusations, but the author himself claimed Le Seuil had launched a smear-filled "press campaign" to avoid paying royalties. Ouologuem left France for Mali, where he never published again.
Fast forward to September 2023, when Haitian-Canadian author Thélyson Orélien, now a best-selling author in France, was hailed as the star of the literary fall season. Orélien's novel C’était ça ou mourir tells the story of a Haitian schoolteacher who attempts to reach Canada amid gang violence. However, on September 21, an anonymous X account posted an AI-detection analysis claiming Orélien's entire novel was written by AI.
The accusations led to Orélien's disqualification from the Académie Goncourt and the end of his relationship with his French publisher Éditions Grasset. Despite his claims of using AI, Orélien maintained his innocence and faced criticism for what some perceived as racist attacks on his language skills. The scandal highlights the ongoing issues of authorship, integrity, and the potential impact of AI on the literary world, a subject that echoes the Ouologuem plagiarism controversy from over five decades ago.
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