Fact check
“An anonymous online account claimed the book was “almost entirely” written by AI.”
Reasoning
The Guardian article reports that an anonymous X account named Balance ton Claude claimed the novel was "almost entirely" written by AI, providing direct evidence of the claim's existence.
On confidence: Multiple excerpts from a reputable primary source (The Guardian) directly report the anonymous account's claim.
Important context
The claim refers to the anonymous account's allegation, not to the factual accuracy of the AI authorship itself. The article also notes disputes over detection tools, but that does not affect the existence of the claim.
Evidence
Supporting (2)
- Tier 1 — Primary sourceNovelist accused of using AI to write book removed from French prize list | Prix Goncourt | The Guardian
EDT Share Prefer the Guardian on Google The organisers of France’s most prestigious literary prize said they had removed a critically acclaimed novel by a Canadian-Haitian writer from the longlist after an anonymous online account claimed…
- Tier 1 — Primary sourceNovelist accused of using AI to write book removed from French prize list | Prix Goncourt | The Guardian
emerged on X on 21 September, the same day It Was That or Die won the Fnac prize for best novel. An anonymous account called Balance ton Claude – a reference to Anthropic’s AI agent – said it had fed the novel into the AI detection…
Limitations
The evidence does not verify whether the book was actually written by AI, only that the anonymous account made the claim.
- Last verified:
- Sep 27, 2026, 4:25 AM CDT
- Pipeline:
- 2.1.0
- Claim type:
- Factual
Where this claim appeared
Novelist accused of using AI to write book removed from French prize listThe Guardian · Philip Oltermann European culture editor