Caine Prize says no evidence its winning story was written by AI, confirms Simbarashe Kundizeza as winner
An internal review followed an article in The Atlantic; the prize says its panel, the author and an independent forensic analyst were consulted.
The Caine Prize for African Writing says an internal review has found no evidence that Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza used generative AI to write his winning short story, and it has confirmed him as winner of this year's £10,000 ($13,000) award, according to the BBC.
The chair of the prize's board of trustees, Ellah Wakatama, said the matter had been investigated after an article in the US magazine The Atlantic. "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 Atlantic article, by journalist Vauhini Vara, was headlined "Yet Another Literary Prizewinner Seems to Be AI". It alleged that the AI-detection software Pangram had shown his story, about a boy whose family falls on hard times, to be entirely AI generated. Kundizeza, who lives in Harare, denied the allegation, and the claim caused an uproar on social media.
The Caine Prize said it took what it called a human-centred approach. The review included interviews with the author, the 2026 judging panel and the Shallow Tales Review, where the story was first published. It also included independent, expert-led metadata analysis of drafts written by the author, carried out by an independent cyber security and digital forensic investigator.
Kundizeza has said he was inspired by a poem about fish tanks to write a story about his family's struggles. Vara had told the BBC's Front Row programme last month that every other previous Caine Prize winning story she had put through Pangram "came out as 100% human".
The row followed disputes over other literary prizes this year. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize was won by Trinidadian writer Jamir Nazir despite allegations that he had used AI, and Canadian-Haitian author Thélyson Orélien withdrew from France's top literary award, the Goncourt, over allegations that he used AI for his first novel, which he denies.
Some African writers said on social media that such accusations are mostly made against non-white writers.
AI detectors are not seen as fully reliable proof by many experts, and the Caine Prize's decision rests on its own review rather than on a ruling from the software's makers. The outcome leaves Kundizeza in possession of the prize while the wider debate over AI and literary awards continues.
SOURCE: BBC
