Canadian-Haitian author Thélyson Orélien has strongly denied allegations that artificial intelligence was used to write his award-winning novel, C’était ça ou mourir
.
Literary Accusations and Pangram Test Claims
The controversy surrounds 38-year-old author Thélyson Orélien and his novel C’était ça ou mourir
, which recently won the Prix du Roman Fnac as the first major prize of the French literary season. Orélien is also a finalist for two of France’s most renowned literary awards: the Goncourt and the Renaudot.
The group stated on X that it tested several passages of the book using Pangram, an AI detection tool it characterized as by far the most accurate
. The group claimed that multiple passages returned a 100 per cent AI result, while pointing to Pangram’s false-positive rate of 0.0041 per cent. Balance ton Claude questioned the transparency of the release, asking Balance ton Claude if it wouldn’t have been more honest for the author to credit their co-author.
Author Rejection and Publisher Defense
Orélien rejected the allegations during an interview with the French newspaper Libération, maintaining that he wrote the book entirely without artificial intelligence. Thélyson Orélien stated that he has always loved creation and literature.
The writer explained that the novel’s imagery, repetitions, and rhythms stem directly from his Haitian and Caribbean traditions. His publisher, Grasset, also defended the book, calling the allegations atrociously injurious
to an author with an exceptional life story while describing the novel as original and powerful
.
Background and Plot of C’était ça ou mourir
The contested novel follows a teacher who escapes gang violence in Haiti before journeying to Canada to start anew. Orélien was born in 1988 in Gonaïves, located in northern Haiti. He later relocated to Montreal, Canada, where he worked as a journalist. Prior to publishing this award-winning novel, his literary output focused primarily on poetic texts.
