AI Didn't Break Literary Prizes. They Were Already Broken

This essay explores the profound impact of generative artificial intelligence on cultural, literary, and academic institutions, framing the current crisis not as a defect of technology, but as a crisis of institutional evaluation. By examining a chain of empirical events spanning from 2023 to 2026 (including controversies at the Sony World Photography Awards, the Akutagawa Prize, and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize) the author argues that contemporary gatekeepers are ill-equipped for a world where polished linguistic and artistic form has become free. Drawing a philosophical parallel to the historical impact of the Colt revolver, the essay conceptualises AI as a "great equaliser" of expression, shifting the core criteria of aesthetic value from the biological identity of the maker to the work’s capacity to resonate with the shared human experience. Ultimately, using Campbell’s Law and the concept of "model collapse," the paper warns against the invisible erosion of structural safeguards and proposes a paradigm shift in institutional judgment: moving away from evaluating free form toward assessing the transparency of the creative process and the explicit accountability of the human creator.