Caine Prize investigates 2026 winner after AI-detection result

An investigation has been opened into the 2026 winner of the £10,000 Caine Prize for African Writing. The move followed a result from the AI-detection tool Pangram, which flagged almost the entire award-winning story as AI-generated.

In a comparison, the same tool classified all 25 previous winning stories tested, along with a 2021 story by the current winner, Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza, as human-written. The contrast has raised questions about this year’s entry.

An AI detector’s result is not, by itself, conclusive proof of how a text was produced. The investigation is ongoing, and no final decision about the prize has been reported.