Canadian publisher cuts ties with best-selling writer Orelien over AI use

The publisher said it conducted a further investigation after allegations surfaced in September to determine whether AI was used to write the novel.

Boreal 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.

The publisher 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.

Author’s denial

Orelien had previously denied allegations surrounding his breakthrough novel, and last week, the Canadian publisher said it was standing by the 38-year-old writer.

But not a single sentence in this book was created by a machine, nor the meaning or the structure of a story that comes from my gut, he said.

On Wednesday, he stood firm, telling the French newspaper Liberation that he had used AI in the creative process for historical research.

The author said he began writing the book in late 2017, before AI services such as ChatGPT were widely available.

Consequences for the book

Orelien’s novel about migration, known by its original French title “C’etait ca ou mourir”, had been scheduled for translation in more than 20 countries.

France’s top book prize, the Goncourt, removed the book from its shortlist after tests with the AI detector Pangram indicated a 100 percent probability that it contained computer-generated text.

But Orelien called the allegations “slander and heresy” in a statement sent to AFP earlier this month.

When the allegations first surfaced in September, Orelien said he suspected racism was behind the attacks on him.