technology ·
African writing award probe finds 'no evidence' winning story was AI generated
The Caine Prize for African Writing has said that after an internal review it has found no evidence that Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza had used generative AI to write his winning short story and confirmed him as the winner of this year's £10,000 ($13,000) award.
Ellah Wakatama, chair of the Caine Prize's board of trustees, said the matter had been investigated following an article in US magazine The Atlantic with the headline, Yet Another Literary Prizewinner Seems to Be AI. "From our detailed investigation, we feel the evidence is clear: The Blue Fighter was human written," she said in a video posted on X. The accusation had caused a social media uproar and Kundizeza had denied the allegation. The Atlantic article by journalist Vauhini Vara alleged that AI-detection software Pangram had shown his work about a boy whose family falls on hard times was entirely AI generated.
