France launches AI prize as UK's SoA exits its own charter

The Prix Pascal, a new French-language literary prize, opens for submissions on 2 November, according to the outlet. Entrants, professional or not, submit a manuscript of 10,000 to 50,000 words along with the prompt that started it (no more than 100 words), a technical account of the model and process used, and a formal declaration that AI was involved; the method must be described in enough detail that another writer could reproduce it. A five-member jury, reportedly to be chaired by Jacques Attali with CNRS researcher Alexandre Gefen among its members, will select ten nominees from entries closing at the end of November, with a winner named in December. At the time of the announcement the prize had no confirmed jury and no declared prize money.

In the UK, the Society of Authors, along with partner bodies in the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, launched an "Ethical AI Charter" on 13 October, under which agents, publishers and prize bodies could pledge to use generative AI in a transparent, responsible and ethical way. The charter was backed by literary figures including Kazuo Ishiguro. Within eight days, the SoA declared that ethical use of generative AI is impossible and withdrew from the charter it had just launched, according to the outlet.

Separately, the outlet reported that novelist Thélyson Orélien's book was pulled from the Goncourt race after detection software flagged it, and his publisher later confirmed AI had been used.