Almadía will do a “detailed review” of his award-winning novel, accused of being written with AI

The Mexican publisher Almadía announced this Friday that it will carry out a “detailed review” and suspend activities related to the presentation of the winning work of its recent contest, 'Where the water works', by the Peruvian David Silva Rojas, after complaints that attribute 99% of its text to the use of generative artificial intelligence.

The award-winning work contains 99% text generated with Artificial Intelligence, according to Pangram, one of the most reputable detectors.

Through a statement issued after the commotion generated, the publishing label and the Ventosa-Arrufat Foundation reported that they will address the controversy seriously" and "without anticipating conclusions", with the aim of ensuring their commitment to readers and out of respect for their trust.

“We consider it necessary to carry out a detailed review, without anticipating conclusions and with the care required by an assessment that may affect a work and its author. While we carry it out, we suspend all activities related to the presentation of the book,” said the publisher.

The author was awarded 20,000 euros in this first edition of the Almadía-Ventosa Arrufat International Short Novel Prize, a contest whose rules expressly prohibited the use of generative AI tools in writing.

The Mexican publisher stressed in its statement that the author of the work signed under contract not to have resorted to this type of technology and that he confirmed it personally. “We have no elements to distrust his word,” the statement said, also supporting the evaluation made by his jury during the ruling.

“During reading the novel, neither the jury nor the editorial team thought that generative AI had been used,” he added. The publisher warned, however, about the risks of delegating to machines the authority to judge the origin of literary creation, recalling that automatic detectors require "interpretation and contrast."

The label concluded that it will dedicate “the necessary time and attention” to the verifications, assuming responsibility for the process as the book world faces one of the first major ethical debates arising from AI in contemporary literature.