Haitian-Canadian author Thélyson Orélien has issued a statement strongly denying allegations that he used artificial intelligence to write his bestselling novel C'était ça ou mourir, calling the claims slander. While asserting that no sentence was machine-generated and that he wrote the initial draft between 2017 and 2019, Orélien admitted to unacceptable instances of plagiarism in his earlier career. The scandal led to the novel's removal from the Prix Goncourt shortlist after AI detector Pangram flagged it, triggering wider debates over literary AI testing.
AI writing denial
- ▪Thélyson Orélien stated that the threats, media lynching, and racist harassment he endured after the AI allegations surfaced were indefensible and cruel.
- ▪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.
- ▪Thélyson Orélien stated that he began writing C'était ça ou mourir in late 2017 and completed a first draft of over 300 pages in 2019.
- ▪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.
Past plagiarism admission
- ▪An investigation by La Presse found that Thélyson Orélien's 2012 award-winning short story Où va le monde contained material taken from the 1960 book Le matin des magiciens.
- ▪Thélyson Orélien offered unreserved apologies for borrowing phrases from authors he admired, including Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier.
- ▪Thélyson Orélien admitted on October 13, 2026 to unacceptable plagiarism in earlier works published more than a decade ago, calling them errors of youth.
- ▪La Presse and Radio Canada found that newspaper columns published by Thélyson Orélien in 2012 and 2013 contained plagiarized material, including a translated article from the Philippine Star.
Goncourt prize withdrawal
- ▪C'était ça ou mourir remained in contention for the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Médicis, and the Prix littéraire de la Porte Dorée despite being removed from the Prix Goncourt shortlist.
- ▪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.
Publisher investigation responses
- ▪Thélyson Orélien's Quebec publisher Éditions du Boréal stated on October 13, 2026 that the author would give no further statements or interviews.
- ▪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.
- ▪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.
Literary AI detection controversies
- ▪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.
- ▪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.
- ▪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.
Debatable claims
- ▪Commercial AI detection tools are reliable enough to establish literary fraud
- ▪Past plagiarism justifies removing Orélien's novel from literary prize contention
- ▪Literary prize juries should require human evidence before revoking awards over AI allegations
- ▪Using AI translation and research tools compromises the original authorship of a novel
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