When there was social media chatter on Monday about an AI-written short story supposedly having won a “prestigious literary prize,” I opted not to blog about it. I hadn’t heard of the Commonwealth Prize, so how prestigious was it really? Plus, there was nothing even close to proof of what was being alleged—just some complaints, and people trying to prove their point with extremely fallible AI detectors. But the social media allegations have metastasized into a scandal by now, and if the New York Times is now writing about this, I might as well too. And if you’ve gotten this far into a blog post about a short story, you might as well read the short story and form your own opinion. It’s called The Serpent in the Grove, and credited to the author Jamir Nazir. It’s not paywalled, and is available on the Granta website. How did you feel when you read the sentence, “Outside, little Puttie – three years old, sun-dark, bright-eyed – chased a yard fowl through dust, his laughter like water over pebbles”? I’m guessing you scoffed, perceiving many AI tropes. You might have sensed these even if you came to the story cold, but then again you might not have. Be honest: you probably wouldn’t have read a short story today at all if there were no scandal.