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Eric Duhaime, leader of the Quebec Conservative Party, acknowledged using artificial intelligence to structure and draft his book Destination Autonomie, with reports indicating a significant portion of the text was machine-generated. While Duhaime defended his actions by emphasizing human supervision and viewing AI as a modern tool for efficiency, his political rivals from the Parti Quebecois, Liberal, and CAQ parties mocked the admission and questioned the integrity of his campaign materials. The controversy highlights the growing role of AI in political communication and raises ethical questions about authorship in public discourse.
Quebec Conservative Party Leader Éric Duhaime admitted to using artificial intelligence to write his latest book. Duhaime told reporters Friday morning that he used AI as “a tool among others” to write the book, titled Destination Autonomie, which was published in April.
Duhaime, who previously worked as a columnist and radio host, said he used AI to structure his thoughts and that the ideas in the book are all his.
“AI is important to us. It’s part of reality. That said, it has to be done under human supervision. And that’s exactly what happened,” Duhaime said.
Using the AI-detection software Pangram, Quebecor media outlets reported on Thursday that 62 per cent of the book was machine-generated. The introduction, written by Conservative candidate Maïté Blanchette-Vézina, was reported to have been completely AI-generated. Blanchette-Vézina had previously crossed the floor to join Duhaime’s party after being shuffled out of former premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec cabinet. Duhaime’s rivals on the campaign trail made light of the revelation about his book.
Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and Liberal Leader Charles Milliard both joked about whether Duhaime used AI to generate his party’s platform. Coalition Avenir Québec leader Christine Fréchette also took a political jab at Duhaime, saying she now understands how he found time to write a book as a politician. Duhaime has supported the use of AI throughout his campaign, saying it could be useful to cut bureaucracy.
He also admitted on Friday to using AI in his campaign materials, including to generate charts, a table of contents and the layout of the party’s financial framework.
“Social progress has been achieved thanks to technology, not in spite of it. So, for us, it was a step forward for society, not a step backward,” he said, questioned on the ethics of his use of AI. In his book, Duhaime reflects on how Quebec can gain more autonomy within the Canadian Confederation. Duhaime has published four other books.
He came out as gay in his 2017 book, titled La fin de l’homosexualité et le dernier gay . He has also written books critical of labour unions, baby boomers and the monopoly of Quebec’s government-owned liquor corporation.
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