Simbarashe Kundizeza, a Zimbabwean author, denies using AI to write award-winning story

An Atlantic article claims The Blue Fighter was almost entirely generated by AI software, days after the story won the Caine Prize for African Writing. Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied using artificial intelligence to write the short story that won the award. The story, titled "The Blue Fighter" by Kundizeza, was...

Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied using artificial intelligence to write an award-winning short story after an article in The Atlantic claimed that software generated it almost entirely by artificial intelligence.

Kondiza's story The Blue Fighter was announced as the winner of the prestigious Kane Prize for African Writers on October 6. Five days later, The Atlantic published an article by author and journalist Vahni Wara titled, "Another Literary Prize Winner Looks Like Artificial Intelligence."

Wara said he ran the story through Pangram AI detection software, which uses AI itself, and assumed the story was almost entirely artificial. The exception, he said, was an inscription from an unpublished poem by South African writer Wangili Ganto.

Wara said that when he read the story, he was “surprised by the proliferation of language that is common in AI-generated writing: making the sentence not x, but y; abundance of metaphors; useless aphorisms".

"Taste is subjective," he said, "but trust me, it's a bad story—madeleine and full of tired ropes."

"For the avoidance of doubt, I wrote 'The Blue Fighter.'

"I look forward to continuing to work with the Kane Prize team and celebrating this recognition with the people who helped bring this story to life." "Most importantly, I will continue to write."

Recently, similar claims have been made about other literary prize winners. In July, Trinidadian author Jameer Nazir won the Commonwealth Foundation Short Story Prize for The Serpent in the Grove, despite critics on social media claiming the book had "obvious signs" of artificial intelligence writing.

Last month, the novel C'était Ça Ou Mourir (Be It or Die) by Canadian-Haitian author Talyson Orlin was removed from the longlist for France's most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt, after an anonymous online account claimed the book was "almost completely" written.

The Kane Prize said in a statement that it is investigating allegations that Condizza used artificial intelligence. "When such claims are made, it is our responsibility to address them. We aim to do this by taking a human-centred approach and ensuring that authors are supported and cared for throughout the process," it said.

Its chair questioned the reliability of AI detection software itself.

Elah Wakatama told the BBC radio show: "As someone who chairs an award, I'm obviously not against AI, but what I'm against is using it as the final arbiter in this case, regardless of what The Atlantic says, because they've already declared our winner a fraud without properly investigating it."

"I'm not happy that the work of writers, and especially black writers for that matter, is the testing ground for something that's still rough and ready at best."

Wara said in her article, and reiterated in an interview with Front Row, that she had read a 2021 story by Kundizeza that differed in tone and style from The Blue Fighter.

"That a writer cannot write in different styles or genres, or improve his writing significantly after five years or more, fundamentally misunderstands the craft of writing," he responded in his statement.

Wara pointed to Pangram's own research showing that false positives are rare, including for non-native English speakers writing in English, as well as a peer-reviewed journal article showing that Pangram has "strong accuracy" when evaluating bogus academic articles created entirely, partially, or without AI. However, he acknowledged to the BBC that there is "relatively little third-party research" into the accuracy of AI detection software.