Quebec author accused of using AI admits past plagiarism but maintains novel is his own work
After spending the last few weeks quietly watching his reputation be torn apart, Quebec-based author Thélyson Orélien is speaking out and addressing the allegations that he used artificial intelligence to write his debut novel.
'The experience I am going through is cruel,' says Thélyson Orélien in new statement
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After spending the last few weeks quietly watching his reputation be torn apart, Quebec-based author Thélyson Orélien is speaking out and addressing the allegations that he used artificial intelligence to write his debut novel.
"It is slander and heresy," he wrote in a statement distributed Tuesday by his Quebec publishing house, Éditions du Boréal.
C'était ça ou mourrir, which translates to "It was either that or die," tells the story of a Haitian migrant who leaves his home for Canada, much like Orélien did following the 2010 earthquake.
The novel was lauded by many in the French-language literary world until an anonymous X account ran excerpts through an AI detection tool and publicly shared those screengrabs on Sept. 21 — the same day the novel won the Prix du roman Fnac.
According to the tool Pangram, the novel was "100 per cent" the work of generative AI.
In Tuesday's statement, Orélien says he used AI tools "here and there" for research, particularly when it comes to foreign idioms, but he says the text, structure and plot all come "straight from my gut."
He says for the past few weeks, he's been subject to a "lynching" through the media and racist harassment, which he says has been unbearable.
"The experience I am going through is cruel," he wrote in French.
"By attributing to a machine a text that is mine, that belongs to all my people, they have challenged not only my status as a writer but my humanity."
WATCH | A look back on the scandal that broke in September:
Award-winning Quebec author accused of using AI for bestselling book
September 25|
Duration
2:25
In recent months, Thélyson Orélien became a sensation for his debut novel C'était ça ou mourir, which follows a teacher escaping gang violence in Haiti’s Port-au-Prince. After the book won a prestigious award on Monday, an anonymous X account accused Orélien of using AI to write it, which he vehemently denies. Since then, other allegations of plagiarism have surfaced against the author.In his statement, he also seemingly discredits the experts who have largely praised Pangram for its reliability and accuracy in detecting AI.
As the debate around the tool and Orélien's writing swirled, the author was accused of plagiarism for various columns dating back to 2012 for newspapers like La Presse. Those accusations became the clincher for different literary festivals and prizes, like the Prix Goncourt, which then distanced themselves from Orélien.
French columnist Samuel Fitoussi has since come out as one of five people behind the X account that made the initial allegation.
Author calls his plagiarism a 'youthful indiscretion'
Where the allegations of plagiarism are concerned, Orélien admitted to it in some of his earlier work, saying on Tuesday they were "unacceptable" mistakes from his youth.
An avid reader, he says he was in a "hurry" to write after leaving Haiti. There were authors whose style captivated him, he says.
"I admired rhythms, ways of phrasing sentences that would stay in my head for days," he said. "But admiration did not give me the right to take — to claim as my own — texts that were not mine."
Thélyson Orélien's debut novel, C'était ça ou mourir, tells the story of a man who undertakes a journey across the Americas to escape gang violence in Haiti. (AFP via Getty Images)
Orélien says he's now asking that C'était ça ou mourrir be judged for what it is, saying it was inspired by his own lived experience and conversations he's had with migrants over the years.
"A youthful indiscretion cannot serve as evidence against a novel begun in 2017 that was finally published in 2026," he said.
"I didn't write this book to win awards or to become famous. I have nothing to prove to the people who accuse me."
Orélien was in the midst of a press tour in France when the scandal broke, and media outlets are reporting he has since returned to Quebec.
Éditions du Boréal says the author won't comment further on the matter and will not be doing any interviews, for now.
C'était ça ou mourrir is still in the running for the Prix Renaudot, considered the second most prestigious French literary award after the Prix Goncourt, as well as the Prix littéraire de la Porte Dorée and the Prix Médicis.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cassandra Yanez-Leyton is a journalist for CBC News based in Montreal. You can email her story ideas at cassandra.yanez-leyton@cbc.ca.
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