By Lesley Vos

AI-Assisted Novel by a Japanese Author Rie Kudan Wins a Prestigious Akutagawa Prize

Rie Kudan,  a Japanese author, has been awarded one of Japan’s most prestigious literary awards for her novel “The Tokyo Tower of Sympathy,” a work partially composed with the assistance of artificial intelligence

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During the award ceremony, Kudan made a surprising confession about her novel. She revealed that “about five percent” of it was composed using ChatGPT

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The judging committee was highly impressed with Kudan’s work, praising it as “flawless” and difficult to find any faults in. Judge Shuichi Yoshida described the novel as both “highly entertaining and interesting”, sparking a debate on how to consider AI-assisted literary works.

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