Novel by writer accused of using AI tops sales
More than a week after an anonymous account accused the Canadian-Haitian writer Thelson Orelien of writing his debut novel "It Was That or Death" (C'etait ca ou mourir) with the help of artificial intelligence, the book continues to see rapidly rising sales in France and Switzerland.
As 1news.az reports, according to the NielsenIQ BookData ranking published by Livres Hebdo, from September 21 to 27 physical sales of the novel in France amounted to 18,254 copies, compared with 12,506 a week earlier — the book took fourth place in overall sales and first place in the novel category, yielding only to a nonfiction book by Sarah Knafo and two manga editions.
In Switzerland's Romandy, booksellers also continue to publicly support the writer — despite the accusations, the novel still tops local sales charts. The publishing house Grasset, which released the book, earlier called the accusations "deeply offensive" and declared its full confidence in the author, who rejects any use of AI tools in writing the text.
The novel, nominated for the Goncourt Prize, tells the story of a Haitian migrant making his way through Latin America and the United States to Canada — it appears that the scandal over the alleged AI authorship has only spurred readers' interest in the book rather than driven them away.
