Publisher's reversal

Boréal announced on Wednesday that it was ending its professional relationship with Orélien over new information indicating that he did use artificial intelligence in his novel. The announcement marked a reversal: only the week before, the publisher had said it stood by the author, who had denied using AI. According to Boréal, the new information was confirmed over the few days before the announcement.

How the analysis worked

The publisher said it gathered all the working versions of the novel and hired an outside party to analyse the various drafts. Before turning to outside analysis, Boréal had tried to work with Orélien to gather the evidence needed to prove his innocence, but that effort proved inconclusive. The publisher said Orélien subsequently announced he would not provide any further information.

The results of the outside analysis included:

• •Traces of AI tags found in the metadata of certain documents.
• •No known extent of the AI use in the writing process.

Boréal said it did not know the extent of AI's role "and we will likely never have a definitive answer".

Prize withdrawal and denial

The book was withdrawn from the shortlist for France's top book prize, the Goncourt, after tests with the AI detector Pangram indicated a 100-percent probability it contained computer-generated text. Orélien had rejected the claims. In a statement to AFP earlier this month, he called the allegations "slander and heresy", saying he began the book in late 2017 and completed a first draft of more than 300 pages in 2019, several years before the advent of AI services such as ChatGPT.

The book and the author

"It Was Either That or Die", known in French as "C'etait ca ou mourir", is a novel about migration and was scheduled for translation in more than 20 countries. Orélien, a Haitian-Canadian writer, fled his native Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. His acclaimed debut had been a top seller before the AI allegations surfaced.