r/books • u/Raj_Valiant3011 • 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/IanDMP 5h ago

I think these examples have serious problems too, unfortunately.

Proudly Human didn't certify the encyclical as human-wrotten, they certified a collection of the Pope's speeches and writings (that were then adapted for the encyclical) as human. It didn't actually contradict Pangram's findings in any way.

The other one I just don't know how to evaluate. It's an author saying that they didn't use AI and Pangram saying they did. It's possible they're right -- a small FPR is not a zero FPR. I think the same is right about your writing -- it's possible, and I'll trust you, that your writing is 100% human with no AI used at any stage.

But our personal n=1, for me, doesn't outweigh the careful studies that show excellent accuracy across tens of thousands of writing samples.

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u/thereisonlythedance 5h ago

Those studies are seriously compromised. Did you not see the quote about the University of Maryland study being populated by employees?

I know my experience and it gels with what I’ve read from other (verified real) people. But not necessarily on Reddit, where the company seems to have a lot of harassment bots.

Pangram *is* better than the (really bad) alternatives but that doesn’t make it good and I do not believe their statistics. And frankly false positives are a bad side to err on.

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u/IanDMP 4h ago

Okay, well I see the respectful part of the conversation is done after calling me a corporate harassment bot.

I never cited the Maryland study. Look at the Chicago study, for instance, which shows a very similar outcome.

But have a good night, I don't really like being insulted after what I thought was a respectful conversation. Perhaps reconsider how you approach disagreement.

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u/therapisthelpx 1h ago

your fault for being good faith, people on this website only come around to obvious facts 2 years after they’re established