BORÉAL ENDS TIES WITH THÉLYSON ORÉLIEN OVER AI FINDING

Canadian publisher Boréal said on Wednesday it had ended its professional relationship with Haitian-Canadian novelist Thélyson Orélien after finding evidence that artificial intelligence helped write his debut novel, *It Was Either That or Die*. “New information, confirmed over the past few days, indicates that artificial intelligence was used in the writing process,” the publisher said. Boréal reached its decision after a further investigation into allegations that emerged in September. Orélien has denied using AI to write the book.

Boréal said it collected the working versions of the novel and hired an outside party to analyse the drafts. That analysis found “traces of AI tags in the metadata of certain documents”, according to the publisher. Boréal said it did not know how extensively AI had been used and “will likely never have a definitive answer”. Before commissioning the analysis, the publisher said it had tried to work with Orélien to gather evidence addressing the allegations. Boréal said that effort proved inconclusive and that Orélien then declined to provide further information.

The novel concerns migration and bears the original French title *C’etait ca ou mourir*. Plans called for translations in more than 20 countries. The book lost its place on the shortlist for France’s Goncourt book prize after tests using the AI detection tool Pangram indicated a 100 per cent probability that it contained computer-generated text. Orélien called the allegations “slander and heresy” in a statement earlier this month. Boréal had said last week that it stood by the writer.