African writing award probe finds 'no evidence' winning story was AI generatedZimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza has also vehemently denied the allegation made in a US magazine.

The Caine Prize for African Writing, a prestigious literary award, has concluded an internal investigation and confirmed that the winning short story, "The Blue Fighter," by Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza, was human-written. The announcement comes after an article in US magazine The Atlantic, titled 'Yet Another Literary Prizewinner Seems to Be AI,' alleged that the story was entirely AI-generated. Ellah Wakatama, chair of the Caine Prize's board of trustees, stated that their investigation found no evidence supporting this claim, stating, "The Blue Fighter was human written."

The controversy erupted on social media, with Kundizeza denying the allegations. The Atlantic article by journalist Vauhini Vara claimed that AI-detection software Pangram had indicated his work as AI-generated. This accusation follows similar controversies surrounding other literary prizes this year, including the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and France's top literary award, the Goncourt. Following her article's publication last month, Vara told BBC's Front Row program that every previous Caine Prize winning story she had put through Pangram "came out as 100% human."

The Caine Prize organization carefully and fairly considered Vara's allegations. Their investigation included interviews with the author, the judging panel, and the Shallow Tales Review, where the story was first published. Additionally, they conducted independent and expert-led metadata analysis of drafts written by Kundizeza. The investigation was carried out by an independent cyber security and digital forensic investigator.

Kundizeza, who won the award earlier in October, shared that he was inspired to write the story after hearing a poem read by South African Vangile Gantsho at an event in Ghana last year about her father's obsession with building fish tanks. He fictionalized details from his own life around 2002 when Zimbabwe's economic troubles began. The controversy has sparked discussions on social media about the potential bias in AI-detection software and accusations against non-white writers.

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