Canadian Publisher Cuts Ties With Best-Selling Author After Confirming AI Use in His Breakthrough Novel
Canadian publisher Boreal has severed its professional relationship with best-selling Haitian-Canadian writer Thelyson Orelien after confirming that artificial intelligence was used to help write his novel, 'It Was Either That or Die'. The dispute centres on that breakthrough book.
Boreal said on Wednesday that it conducted a further investigation after allegations surfaced in September, to determine whether AI was used to write the novel. According to the publisher, new information confirmed over the past few days indicates that artificial intelligence was used in the writing process.
The turn of events was swift. Only last week the publisher had been standing by the 38-year-old writer. But once the results of the new investigation came in, it changed its position and decided to cut ties.
Boreal admitted it does not know the extent of AI's use in the writing process. In its words, a definitive answer to that question will likely never be available.
As part of the investigation, the publisher gathered all the working versions of the novel and hired an outside party to analyse the various drafts.
The results obtained this week revealed traces of AI tags in the metadata of certain documents. According to Boreal, that evidence became the basis for its decision.
The publisher also said it had tried to work with Orelien to gather the evidence necessary to prove his innocence. That effort was inconclusive, and Orelien subsequently announced that he would not provide any further information.
Orelien's novel is about migration. Its original French title is 'C'etait ca ou mourir'. The book had been scheduled for translation in more than 20 countries, a sign of its international success.
The author had already suffered a major blow. France's top book prize, the Goncourt, removed the novel from its shortlist after tests with the AI detector Pangram indicated a 100 percent probability that it contained computer-generated text.
Orelien, however, refuses to accept the allegations. In a statement to AFP earlier this month he called them 'slander and heresy'. He said he had used tools here and there for research, particularly for foreign idioms, but that not a single sentence in the book was created by a machine, nor were the meaning or the structure of a story that came from his gut.
On Wednesday he stood firm again, telling the French newspaper Liberation that he had used AI 'in the creative process' for 'historical research'. He said he began writing the book in late 2017, before AI services such as ChatGPT were widely available.
When the allegations first surfaced in September, Orelien said he suspected racism was behind the attacks on him. Now, with his publisher cutting ties, the dispute has raised a large question in the literary world about the limits of AI use — one that will not be easy to answer.
