Prix Pascal requires AI disclosure for literary prize chaired by Jacques Attali

Essayist Jacques Attali will chair the jury of a French literary prize that requires writers to acknowledge their AI collaborators, Le Monde reported on November 14. The Prix Pascal de Littérature IA, which opened submissions in October, asks for both a manuscript and an account of how it was made. Its winner is promised publication.

The jury detail adds to the picture of a competition announced on October 16 by three technology entrepreneurs: Philippe Rodriguez, Albin Serviant and Gilles Mentré. Applications opened on October 20. Rather than treating AI involvement as grounds for exclusion, the prize explicitly seeks works co-written with it.

The organizers describe a literary award, not a technology contest. Their stated aim combines a demand for originality with a social purpose: entries should be useful, raise an alarm, or offer an original way to address an ecological, social or ethical challenge threatening humanity.

A manuscript with a record of its making

An entry consists of three documents submitted together through the prize’s online form. The official prize site specifies the language, approximate length and supporting explanation for each. The process asks applicants to document both the starting idea and the tools used to turn it into a finished work.

• The manuscript: a French-language work of approximately 300,000 characters, including spaces. It must be submitted anonymously as a PDF, with a title, back-cover description and pagination.
• The seed: roughly 4,000 characters, or about two pages, setting out the project’s starting point. The organizers allow forms including a word, sentence, number, dialogue, poem or description.
• The technical file: a two-page PDF describing the language model, AI agents or prompt used. Applicants may include source code, but are not required to do so.

The competition accepts all major language models, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Mistral and LLaMA, as well as other models. The organizers say the choice of tool informs the jury but is not a basis for eliminating an entry. Each applicant can submit up to three entries.

Disclosure to the judges does not mean every applicant’s originating idea becomes public. The site says unsuccessful candidates’ seeds remain confidential. The winning work’s seed may be published only with its author’s consent, as part of the prize’s effort to encourage discussion of human-machine co-writing.

Literary quality, with broad eligibility

Although applicants must explain their AI use, the organizers say the winner will be chosen solely on the quality of the work. The five-member jury is to assess aesthetic, narrative and stylistic merit independently. Its decision is final, and the chair has the deciding vote in a tie.

The eligibility rules are broader than a competition for first-time novelists. No professional writing experience, publisher, nationality or place of residence is required. The manuscript must be in French, but applicants can enter from abroad. The site allows applications from individuals and legal entities.

Both fiction and nonfiction qualify. The organizers particularly encourage essays, biographies, memoirs and other nonfiction. A work cannot have been published by a traditional publisher, but self-published books are eligible—including those released through self-publishing platforms. Having already put a book before readers is therefore not, by itself, disqualifying.

Those official specifications differ from the Guardian’s October 21 launch coverage, which described unpublished fiction of 10,000 to 50,000 words and an early-December winner announcement. Applicants should use the organizer’s published requirements: approximately 300,000 characters, fiction or nonfiction, and a December 15 award ceremony. The distinction affects both what can be entered and the preparation required.

For entrants, the immediate task is a complete submission, not just a finished book. The online portal accepts the manuscript and supporting files together, with a total limit of 20 MB. The organizers advise reading the full regulations before submitting and say an email acknowledgment follows validation of the entry.