Simbarashe Kundizeza denies AI use in Caine Prize winning story

Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied allegations that his award-winning short story, ‘The Blue Fighter’, was generated by artificial intelligence. The story recently won the $10,000 Caine Prize for African Writing.

The controversy began following a report in The Atlantic, where journalist Vauhini Vara stated that the AI-detection tool Pangram flagged the text as almost entirely AI-generated. Kundizeza has rejected these claims, asserting that the story is a deeply personal work based on his family’s experiences during Zimbabwe’s economic hardships. He provided a chronology of the story’s development, noting it underwent standard editorial processes and was inspired by a poem by Vangile Gantsho.

Kundizeza also raised concerns regarding potential bias in AI-detection technology, suggesting such tools may be unfairly deployed against native writers documenting their own cultures. The Caine Prize organizers have confirmed the award is under review and stated they are conducting a ‘human-centered approach’ to investigate the claims.