African writing award probe finds 'no evidence' winning story was AI generated

The Caine Prize for African Writing has said that after an internal review it has found no evidence that Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza had used generative AI to write his winning short story and confirmed him as the winner of this year's £10,000 ($13,000) award.

Ellah Wakatama, chair of the Caine Prize's board of trustees, said the matter had been investigated following an article in US magazine The Atlantic with the headline, Yet Another Literary Prizewinner Seems to Be AI.

"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 accusation had caused a social media uproar and Kundizeza had denied the allegation.

The Atlantic article by journalist Vauhini Vara alleged that AI-detection software Pangram had shown his work about a boy whose family falls on hard times was entirely AI generated.

Her allegations followed rows over other literary prizes this year, in particular the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, which was won by Trinidadian writer Jamir Nazir despite allegations that he had used AI, and the withdrawal of Canadian-Haitian author Thélyson Orélien from France's top literary award, the Goncourt, over allegations he used AI for his first novel, which he denies.

Following the publication of her article last month, Vara had told BBC's Front Row programme that every other previous Caine Prize winning story she had put through Pangram "came out as 100% human".

The backlash on social media included comments from African writers with suggestions that such accusations are primarily being made against non-white writers.

Zimbabwean author denies using AI to write award-winning story

Wakatama said the Caine Prize organisation had considered Vara's allegations "carefully and fairly".

"We chose to take a human-centred approach to the investigation. Our review included interviews with the author, the 2026 judging panel, and the Shallow Tales Review, where the story was first published," she said.

"It also included independent and expert-led metadata analysis of drafts written by the author."

In a statement, the Caine Prize explained further that the analysis had been conducted by an independent cyber security and digital forensic investigator.

The day after winning the prestigious Caine Prize award earlier in October, Kundizeza had told the BBC he was inspired 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 said he had weaved that with fictionalised details from his own life around 2002 when Zimbabwe's economic troubles began.

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