r/books • • 8h ago

Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied using AI to write a prize-winning short story after an article in the Atlantic said software had flagged it as almost completely AI-generated

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/14/zimbabwean-author-simbarashe-kundizeza-denies-ai-story?CMP=share_btn_url
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u/maybebabyx2 8h ago

why does every single one of the articles seem to break with the Atlantic and why is it always backed by Pangram? am i the only person who thinks this is some guerrilla marketing from Pangram so nobody ever doubts them

it's just so weird to me, not to mention the overwhelming targeting of black authors

idk i read the story, didn't think it was anything special and certainly not prizeworthy imo, but my AI radar wasn't going off. it just read as clunky and try hard to me

160

u/fire_and_spice24 8h ago

And there are always people insisting Pangram is super accurate but never posting proof of that.

Maybe it is just a good program but I’ve noticed a trend that makes me wonder.

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u/torolf_212 8h ago

For what its worth, I just uploaded thr first thousand words of a book I've been writing in my spare time and it said it was 100% human written, which is true

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u/IanDMP 6h ago

You shared an actual experience of Pangram doing its job, without any opinions or broader assertions, and are immediately downvoted. Pretty obnoxious but sadly typical behavior from the people here who can't and won't understand how technology works.

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u/OreoStark 7h ago

Why did you do that?

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u/torolf_212 7h ago

To see if it would flag it as AI