The Board of Trustees of the Caine Prize for African Writing has concluded its internal review of The Blue Fighter by Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza, winner of the 2026 Caine Prize, and confirm that the award stands.

The review opened on 11 October 2026, after an article in The Atlantic titled “Yet Another Literary Prizewinner Seems To Be AI,” written by Vauhini Vara, alleged the story may have been written using generative AI.

According to the announcement on their website, the Board had rigorous interviews the author, 2026 judging panel and The Shallow Tales Review, where the story was first published. The announcement also made mentioned of metadata analysis of drafts written by the author which was “conducted by an independent Cyber Security & Digital Forensic Investigator. The overall review was led by Interim Director of The Caine Prize, Susi Owusu, using a carefully designed risk management framework.” Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza reacted positively to this on social media.

The Board wrote that four drafts leading up to final submission were submitted for scrutiny. The analysis gave a timeframe for writing and editing this piece at 27 hours. Also, the author and publisher provided the Board with other documentation showing the story’s development over time.

Findings shows that the writer’s process started in April 2025 from ideation and completed in June 2025 after considerable communication with the poet that inspired the piece in question. Upon this finding, the Board confirms it “review found no evidence that the story was produced using generative AI.” Almost disappointedly, it says “AI detection tools alone are not a reliable basis for determining authorship.”

To avoid a recurrence of this incident, the Prize decided to introduce new measures for 2027, when submissions open on 23 November:

• An AI declaration for all stories submitted for consideration by publishers.
• An AI declaration for all shortlisted writers.
• Guidance for judges on assessing and raising concerns about AI use.
• A published process for reviewing future concerns.
• An AI Use Policy has been developed for guidance

Author

Paul Olayioye