Three senior officials from the 2025 World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Seattle have stepped down following backlash over the use of artificial intelligence during the convention’s programming process. Though the Hugo Awards themselves were not implicated, the controversy has nonetheless sparked heated debate within the science fiction and fantasy community.
In a joint statement posted to Bluesky, Hugo administrator Nicholas Whyte, deputy administrator Esther MacCallum-Stewart, and WSFS division head Cassidy announced their resignations. “We want to reaffirm that no LLMs or generative AI have been used in the Hugo Awards process at any stage,” the statement read, attempting to clarify the scope of the issue.
The controversy stems from Seattle Worldcon 2025’s use of a large language model—specifically ChatGPT—as part of its vetting process for panelists. According to an April 30 blog post by Seattle Worldcon chair Kathy Bond, the AI was used solely to aid in online searches for potential programming participants, helping volunteers identify individuals and screen for concerns.
“Only the proposed panelist’s name was input into the LLM,” Bond explained. “The sole purpose was to streamline the research process. Any negative findings were reviewed manually by multiple team members to ensure accuracy.” She emphasized that no other data was entered, and that the tool’s use was strictly confined to this single aspect of convention planning.
Bond defended the decision by noting that the process saved “literally hundreds of hours” of volunteer time and arguably improved the vetting process through cross-verification of results. She stated unequivocally that generative AI was not used in any other capacity at the convention.
Despite this, the reaction was swift and intense. Critics raised ethical and creative concerns about using AI for participant vetting, particularly in a community that prizes human creativity and transparency. Bond issued a follow-up apology on May 2, acknowledging that her initial explanation had failed to adequately address community concerns.
“My initial statement… was incomplete, flawed, and missed the most crucial points,” she wrote. “I acknowledge my mistake and am truly sorry for the harm it caused.”
The fallout escalated further when Yoon Ha Lee, author of Moonstorm, announced on May 1 that he was withdrawing the book from consideration for the Lodestar Award (a Hugo-adjacent prize for YA fiction), citing the April 30 post. “All respect and I’m grateful to them for their work, sorry [things] came to this pass,” Lee wrote in a follow-up post after the resignation announcement.
Though the AI was not used in any part of the Hugo Awards nomination or voting process, the scandal arrives amid heightened sensitivity following last year’s Hugo controversy. The 2023 Hugos, presented at the Chengdu Worldcon in China, came under fire after several high-profile works, including R.F. Kuang’s Babel, were notably absent from the ballot despite widespread acclaim. That incident prompted an investigation and a recent apology from the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon committee, which acknowledged the “damage” caused by those exclusions.
The opposition to the use of AI tools to sort through the conventions’ approximate 1300 panelist applications was not unanimous.
Said SF Grandmaster David Gerrold,
“I do find it ironic that some science fiction fans are objecting to some of the uses of software technology. (As I understand it, the persons under attack merely used it to sort available data under human supervision.)
Ohell, I find it ironic for anyone to be objecting to the use of modern technology — you know, the technology that eradicated smapplox and polio, the technology that puts fresh strawberries on the table all year round, the technology that puts instant communication in your pocket or purse, the technology that allows you to tell a scammer what you think of his ancestry, all that.”
While this year’s issue is unrelated to the 2023 ballots, it underscores an ongoing tension within the Worldcon community over governance, ethics, and the role of new technologies like AI in the management of one of speculative fiction’s most prestigious institutions.
The software used by WorldCon to manage the awards nominations process is called NomNom. It is fully open source, and does not use artificial intelligence in any way.
Seattle Worldcon 2025 is scheduled to take place August 13–17. The Hugo Awards ceremony will be held August 16.
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I am opposed to AI being used to replace human creativity. But that doesn’t sound like what happened here.
Computers have made work easier for humans since the 20th century. My guess is virtually everyone if not everyone involved with Worldcon uses a computer.
And for what we call Artificial Intelligence…it’s not. At least it’s not in the original sense where the AI is actually a self-aware being. (Go ask Asimov’s robots or Star Trek’s Data.)