Philippe Jaenada, newly crowned Prix Goncourt winner, revealed on France Inter radio that he used artificial intelligence "three times" while writing his award-winning true-crime novel L'Inconnue du quai de Javel (The Unknown Woman from Quai de Javel), sparking debate across the French literary scene. Speaking a day after securing France's top literary prize on Tuesday, the 62-year-old author said he embedded a single sentence written by ChatGPT into the text as an "Easter egg" challenge for readers, disclosed to the Académie Goncourt jurors only after winning, and also used AI for minor technical background checks and a scene mocking ChatGPT over whether paving stones or hair dry faster. Jaenada said "we cannot push AI away" and "have to tame it and not let ourselves be replaced." The admission comes weeks after author Thélyson Orélien's novel C'était ça ou mourir was removed from the Goncourt longlist following allegations of heavy AI generation and plagiarism. The jury awarded Jaenada six votes out of ten for his investigation into the unsolved 1949 murder of 29-year-old model Louise Cansot in Paris; the book is published by Flammarion. Académie Goncourt representatives have not indicated any plans to reconsider the award.