Professor Flags 4 Commonwealth Prize Stories as AI-Generated, With 2 Scoring 100%
Updated
Updated · UnHerd · May 20
Professor Flags 4 Commonwealth Prize Stories as AI-Generated, With 2 Scoring 100%
12 articles · Updated · UnHerd · May 20
Wharton professor Ethan Mollick tested Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner “The Serpent in the Grove” and said AI-detection software returned a 100% match for AI-generated text.
Three other Granta-published finalists also drew scrutiny after similar checks: two stories scored 100% AI-generated on Pangram and a third scored 92%, according to the report.
The questions widened because four of the five emerging writers had little prior online or print footprint, though the Commonwealth Foundation said it had confirmed the authors are real and had spoken with each of them.
Granta said its editors did not read the stories beyond copyediting and were not involved in selecting the nearly 8,000 entries, which Commonwealth said went through multiple rounds of judging.
The episode puts pressure on literary gatekeepers and AI-detection tools alike ahead of the contest’s overall winner announcement on June 30.
Are prize-winning authors a brilliant literary hoax, or is AI detection technology destroying innocent careers?
With new AI laws and flawed detectors, how can we ever truly verify human creativity again?
The Serpent in the Grove: AI Authorship Allegations Shake the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Overview
In May 2026, Jamir Nazir’s story "The Serpent in the Grove" won the Caribbean regional prize at the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, but the celebration was quickly overshadowed by allegations that the story was written by AI. Critics, led by Nabeel S. Qureshi, pointed to specific lines in the story as evidence of AI-generated language. In response, Granta, the publisher, clarified its limited role in the selection process and submitted the story to an AI detection tool, Claude. However, the tool’s inconclusive results left the question of true authorship unresolved, fueling debate about AI’s role in creative writing.