The British literary magazine Granta will no longer publish stories from the winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize following a dispute over the potential use of AI in one of the texts, reports The Guardian.
Granta announced that it will cease participating in "external publishing partnerships" where the magazine lacks editorial control.
The issue arose during the selection of regional winners for the 2026 prize, which sparked controversy due to suspicions that one or more stories may have been partially generated by AI. The authors have "vehemently denied" these allegations.
Granta will, however, keep the shortlisted stories on its website "in the public interest."
The dispute centered around the story "The Serpent in the Grove" by Jamir Nazir, the winner from the Caribbean region. Some readers and experts claimed that the text exhibited signs of generative AI, including distinctive language patterns and repetitive structures.
Nazir told the Observer that he works exclusively on an Android smartphone. He explained that due to chronic health issues, he dictates the text and then makes minimal edits using the keyboard.
Publisher and philanthropist Sigrid Rausing acknowledged that the judges might have awarded a "case of AI plagiarism," but emphasized that this is "still unknown."
Razmi Farouk, CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, stated that all authors on the shortlist personally confirmed the absence of AI content, and after further consultations, the foundation accepted this.
The overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize receives £5,000, while regional winners each receive £2,500. According to the Sigrid Rausing Trust website, the foundation allocated £30,000 for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize from 2014 to 2016. The prize organizers did not respond to The Guardian's request for comment.
It is worth noting that in May, the organizers of the Oscars banned AI-generated actors and scripts.