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, according to The Guardian.
Granta stated 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 might have been partially generated by AI. The authors “strongly denied” the allegations.
Granta will, however, keep the shortlisted stories on its website “in the public interest.”
The controversy centered on the story The Serpent in the Grove by Jamir Nazir, the winner in the Caribbean region. Some readers and experts claimed the text showed signs of generative AI, including characteristic language structures and repetitive patterns.
Nazir told the Observer that he works exclusively on an Android smartphone. Due to chronic health issues, he dictates the text and then minimally edits it using a keyboard.
Publisher and philanthropist Sigrid Rausing suggested that the judges might have awarded “a case of AI plagiarism,” but emphasized that this is “not yet known.”
Commonwealth Foundation CEO Razmi Farook stated that all shortlisted authors personally confirmed the absence of AI content, and after further consultations, the foundation acknowledged this.
The overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize receives £5,000, while regional winners receive £2,500 each. According to the Sigrid Rausing Trust website, the foundation allocated £30,000 to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize from 2014 to 2016. The prize organizers did not respond to The Guardian’s request for comment.
In May, the organizers of the Oscars banned AI-generated actors and scripts.
