Obvious markers of AI': doubts raised over winner of short story prize

"The foundation that awarded the prize and Granta, the magazine that published the winning story, said they had considered the allegations and had not reached a conclusion as to whether they were true. It may be that the judges have now awarded a prize to an instance of AI plagiarism we don't yet know, and perhaps we never will know, said Sigrid Rausing, the publisher of Granta."

"Shortly after it was published, internet sleuths and a few literary critics seized upon the work and its author, Jamir Nazir, reportedly a 61-year-old from Trinidad and Tobago with few publications to his name. Ethan Mollick, a professor at Wharton in the US, wrote on Bluesky: 100% AI generated story just won the Commonwealth prize for the Caribbean region, calling this a Turing test of sorts."

"As evidence, he cited Pangram, an AI detector, which said the work was AI-generated, but he added: Come on, if you know you know. Another commentator, previously employed at Palantir, said there were plenty of other obvious markers of AI writing in the story, including a litany of not x, but y sentence structures, by now a familiar trope of AI writing."

"The story in question, The Serpent in the Grove, was named as the winning entry for the Commonwealth prize from the Caribbean on Saturday and published in Granta magazine. In a voice of restraint and quiet authority, according to the judging committee, it narrates an intense episode in a troubled marriage, and is set in a farmhouse next to an enchanted grove."

A short story, The Serpent in the Grove, won the Commonwealth prize for the Caribbean and was published in Granta. After publication, online sleuths and some critics focused on the author, Jamir Nazir, and raised claims that the story may have been generated by AI. The allegations relied on syntactical patterns and on an AI detector, Pangram, which reportedly flagged the work as AI-generated. Some commentators described the situation as a test of whether AI can pass as human writing. The awarding foundation and Granta said they considered the claims but did not determine whether they were true. The judging committee praised the story’s restrained, authoritative voice and its depiction of a troubled marriage set beside an enchanted grove.

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