Literary prize winner accused of submitting an AI-written story
AI may have just won a prize for literary excellence.
One of this year's regional winners of the Commonwealth Foundation Short Story Prize has become the center of attention after suspicions were raised that their work had been generated by AI.
The short story, entitled “The Serpent in the Grove,” by Jamir Nazir, was published in Granta, a British literary magazine.
The winning entry tells a story of “a struggling farmer, a silenced young wife, and a grove that seems to remember what human beings try to bury,” states the Commonwealth Foundation site.
Despite the foundation’s praise for the author, calling his language “sublime – precise yet richly evocative – conjuring vivid, lush imagery with remarkable economy,” his work was soon deemed to have been generated by AI.
The news came after Ethan Mollick, a professor at Wharton and artificial intelligence researcher, shared his findings on the matter on Bluesky.
The professor revealed that he conducted a “Turing Test of sorts,” which showed that the award-winning story was “100% AI generated.”
The Turing Test can determine a machine’s ability to display intelligence similar to that of human beings.
In a Turing Test of sorts, it looks like a 100% AI generated story just won the Commonwealth Prize for the Caribbean region undefinedfor its lyrical precision and haunting atmosphere, the story stood out for the confidence and restraint of its voice.undefined Published in Granta: granta.com/the-serpent-...
undefined Ethan Mollick (@emollick.bsky.social) 18 May 2026 at 20:50
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The researcher also shared that he ran the story through an AI detector software, Pangram. Mollick added that “it has lots of false negatives, but almost no false positives,” also citing an independent research on the tool.
Pangram flagged the short story as being 100% generated by AI.
With time, it becomes harder to determine whether something has been created by AI. However, there are a few signs that may indicate that the story was generated, as reported by Literary Hub.
For example, in his story, Nazir uses parallelism, epistrophe, and a list of three literary devices that are often used by large language models (LLMs).
The short story is still published on the Granta website, with the magazine issuing a disclaimer stating:
“This year, there has been speculation that some of the stories may have been at least partially AI-generated. The suggestion that writers have submitted material not authentically their own is a charge we take seriously, but until definite evidence comes to light we will keep these stories on our website.”
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Who is behind “The Serpent in the Grove?”
The short story in question was submitted by author Jamir Nazir. Granta magazine presents the man as a “Trinidadian writer of East Indian heritage” who is “a prolific poet and author.”
This isn’t his first publication, as he’s also the author of the book “Night Moon Love: Poems For All Who Have Loved Or Dreamed Of Love.”
The author received a £2,500 (about $3,300) prize for writing the story, The Times of India reported.
However, many began questioning whether such an author actually exists rather than also being a creation of AI.
The suspicion was raised by users who reviewed Nazir’s social media accounts, including Facebook and LinkedIn.
While some argued that he may be an AI based on some of his headshots and LinkedIn posts, others believed he’s a real person who just likes using AI.
Jamir Nazir has been among the five winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize from 7,806 entries.
The final winner will be announced on June 30th, 2026.
Nevertheless, due to the current situation, the Commonwealth Foundation has already begun reviewing its selection process, The Hindu reported.
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