Thélyson Orélien acknowledged using research tools to help with foreign idioms while writing C'était ça ou mourir, but stated no sentence was created by a machine.

Overview Debates Related claims Topics Sources

In earlier work, the research group behind IdeaLens found that human-written stories differ structurally from AI-generated stories and that different chatbots tend to use identical arguments when writing essays.

Substack partnered with AI detection tool Pangram to let readers scan posts for estimated AI usage, though creators can disable automated scanning in publication settings.

An AI detector analysis by Pangram found that 41% of long-form posts and 30% of short-form posts on LinkedIn between April and June 2026 were AI-generated.

Substack enables creators to add disclosures to their content explaining how AI was used during writing or confirming if no AI was used.

Tests run on excerpts of Thélyson Orélien's novel C'était ça ou mourir using the detection program Pangram indicated a 100-percent probability of AI-generated text.

French writer Samuel Fitoussi revealed himself as one of five individuals behind the anonymous X account that publicly posted AI detection tests of C'était ça ou mourir on September 21, 2026.

The jury of the Prix Goncourt removed Thélyson Orélien's novel C'était ça ou mourir from its long-list citing a strong probability of AI use and past plagiarism.

Author Thélyson Orélien issued a statement on October 13, 2026 denying that he used artificial intelligence to write his novel C'était ça ou mourir.

Using AI translation and research tools compromises the original authorship of a novel

Literary prize juries should require human evidence before revoking awards over AI allegations

University of Toronto associate professor Kevin Bryan stated he was convinced Thélyson Orélien used AI for C'était ça ou mourir based on literary patterns and Pangram analysis.

Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza denied using AI to write his Caine Prize-winning short story The Blue Fighter after an article in The Atlantic cited Pangram detection results.

Éditions du Boréal stated that it was unable to categorically confirm or deny the allegations that Thélyson Orélien used AI to write C'était ça ou mourir.

Subtly altering word choices for watermarking degrades the quality of AI writing

Critics have questioned whether text watermarking affects writing quality, a concern that has also been raised regarding Anthropic's Claude watermark

OpenAI introduced Pages, a collaborative document format native to ChatGPT that allows humans and AI agents to write, research, generate charts, and edit content together in real time.

OpenAI has previously integrated ChatGPT capabilities directly into Apple's system-wide Writing Tools and Siri as part of the Apple Intelligence rollout

Within macOS Writing Tools, users can leverage Alibaba's Qwen to generate text or images directly from written descriptions

The Barna research published in August 2026 indicates that US practicing Christians primarily use AI for everyday tasks such as finding information, learning tasks, seeking advice, following news, and improving writing