Bond says ChatGPT was not used in deciding who to invite as a panelist, it was used “in the discovery of material to review after panelist selection had occurred.”
Morgan adds, “This process has only been used for panelists appearing on site in Seattle; panelists for our Virtual program have not yet been selected.”
Bond stresses that “ChatGPT was used only for one tailored task that was then followed by a human review and evaluation of the information,” and that “no selected panelist was excluded based on information obtained through AI without human review and no selected panelist was chosen by AI.”
As part of their remediation, the Seattle committee is redoing the part of the program process that used ChatGPT, with that work being performed by new volunteers from outside their current team.
Morgan also makes her own apology (the chair published her own several days ago).
I want to apologize specifically for our use of ChatGPT in the final vetting of selected panelists as explained below. OpenAI, as a company, has produced its tool by stealing from artists and writers in a way that is certainly immoral, and maybe outright illegal. When it was called to my attention that the vetting team was using this tool, it seemed they had found a solution to a large problem. I should have re-directed them to a different process. Using that tool was a mistake. I approved it, and I am sorry. As will be explained later, we are embarking on the process of re-doing the vetting stage for every invited panelist, completely without the use of generative AI tools.
And Morgan has provided the text of the ChatGPT query that was used in the vetting process.
The committee will be making their next update about the subject on May 13.
The Seattle Worldcon 2025’s WSFS Division Head Cassidy, Hugo Administrator Nicholas Whyte, and Deputy Hugo Administrator Esther MacCallum-Stewart today announced their resignations from the committee in the following statement:
Effective immediately, Cassidy (WSFS DH), Nicholas Whyte (Hugo Administrator) and Esther MacCallum-Stewart (Deputy Hugo Administrator) resign from their respective roles from the Seattle 2025 Worldcon. We do not see a path forward that enables us to make further contributions at this stage.
We want to reaffirm that no LLMs or generative AI have been used in the Hugo Awards process at any stage. Our nomination software NomNom is well-documented on GitHub for anyone to be able to review. We firmly believe in transparency for the awards process and for the Finalists who have been nominated. We believe that the Hugo Awards exist to celebrate our community which is filled with artists, authors, and fans who adore the works of our creative SFF community. Our belief in the mission of the Hugo Awards, and Worldcon in general has guided our actions in the administration of these awards, and now guides our actions in leaving the Seattle Worldcon.
Cassidy
Nicholas Whyte
Esther MacCallum-Stewart
The Seattle Worldcon’s WSFS Division administers the Hugo Awards, Business Meeting, and Site Selection. The committee’s remaining WSFS Division leadership includes Deputy Division Heads Kathryn Duval and Rosemary Parks (who is also Site Selection Coordinator).
Those who had registered for the online event received notifications from Eventbrite, and the announcement was posted in social media.
The town halls are designed for members to ask questions about the business meeting process. The fate of the second town hall announced for May 25 is unknown.
Kathy Bond today posted an “Apology and Response From Chair” at the Seattle Worldcon 2025 website to address the brewing controversy about the committee using ChatGPT as part of its process for screening program participants.
First and foremost, as chair of the Seattle Worldcon, I sincerely apologize for the use of ChatGPT in our program vetting process. Additionally, I regret releasing a statement that did not address the concerns of our community. My initial statement on the use of AI tools in program vetting was incomplete, flawed, and missed the most crucial points. I acknowledge my mistake and am truly sorry for the harm it caused.
There is much more that needs to be done to address this harm, but it will take some time to develop a comprehensive response and fuller apology over the weekend. We will release a response by Tuesday of next week that provides a transparent explanation of the process that was used, answers more of the questions and concerns we have received, and openly outlines our next steps.
The fallout from Seattle Worldcon 2025 Chair Kathy Bond’s public statement attempting to defend the use of ChatGPT as part of the screening process for program participants now includes Yoon Ha Lee’s rejection of his status as a Lodestar Award finalist:
SEATTLE 2025 SOCIAL MEDIA. The original Seattle Worldcon 2025: “Statement From Worldcon Chair” post on Bluesky continues to be a magnet for criticisms of the committee, shaming, demands for resignations, a call for all panelists to reject their invitations, and ridicule of the Worldcon in general, which can be read at the link.
Back on Bluesky, Jasmine Gower asserts “Their own Privacy Policy does NOT give them permission to share your personal data (even ‘just’ your name) with genAI”, and says after contacting the con to object, they are getting a full refund of their membership.
… I also want to express that the disconnect between the concom and the larger SF community on this issue is, to me, even more concerning than the narrower technical decisions. The ethical, environmental, and practical issues with AI are loudly, widely, and routinely discussed in the science fiction community, with many artists directly impacted by AI plagiarism; community members of all backgrounds frequently voice their positions against it. Even very slight familiarity with this topic—on social media, as discussed at other conventions, at all levels of publication from professional journalism to personal blogs—would have warned against using AI for this purpose and predicted this community response. Whether or not Seattle’s vetting program was practically or ethically sound, the decision to use ChatGPT scripts, and the language in this disclosure, speak to either ignorance of or disregard for an intense opinion vocally held by a very large portion of the SF community.
I was—and still am—incredibly delighted and honored to be a Hugo finalist. And, as someone who rarely gets to meet other fans in person, and who can rarely afford to travel to Worldcon, I was incredibly excited to attend and participate this year. It’s personally crushing that, unless the concom takes major steps to address this controversy, this will be another Worldcon that will always have an asterisk next to it, another Worldcon that unnecessarily creates a lot of bad feelings and bad blood in the community. Whether or not it’s accurate to the situation, “the Worldcon where panelists were selected by the racist plagiarism machine” is going to be what it’s remembered for if significant steps are not taken, and quickly.
I urge the concom to take the reputational damage being incurred extremely seriously, and not to dismiss the practical concerns about how LLM usage affected panelist selection. I ask that you look at the response to this statement—on all channels—equally seriously, to see the level of anger, hurt, and division it is causing. In a year when the host country’s institutional bigotry is already significantly affecting who will or can attend Worldcon, it feels particularly important to set this right…
I am… currently mulling my options concerning the whole mess. I don’t particularly want to go the rest of my life and my career with “AI VETTED” hanging around my neck like a scarlet letter, especially after I’ve been so vocal in disavowing it, of distancing myself from it, in stating unequivocally that I do not want or accept the presence of AI anywhere near my creative endeavours. I am in contact with a number of other authors who feel the same way.
Shawn Marier, who runs Seattle’s film festival, stood up for the Worldcon’s use of LLM.
David Gerrold is another rare instance of someone who supports the committee.
More than one writer raised the spectre of ChatGPT’s reputation for racial bias in its results.
One commenter feels the skillset of Worldcon runners needs to be expanded.
The present controversy is also feeding on the discontent which follows when some applicants are not selected as panelists, and the various ideas that notability, awards, or longevity in the field should govern who is picked.
… Let’s talk WC for just a moment. I haven’t attended many, usually because they happen close to Dragon Con, which is a place I do most of my business for the following year. But I wanted to do WC this year, not only because it’s a city I love, but I have a big release from Arc Manor Publishers coming out that, for the first time, might be something the Hugos might consider worthy of notice. This was important to me, being there, among my friends, my peers, my publisher. So, I submitted my application, expecting the best.
When I got my denial, it was from Sunny Jim, who I’d hoped had learned that I wasn’t that same naïve baby-author of the past. I also found it weird, having seen so many posts about international authors cancelling their memberships because their afraid to fly here (that’s a can of worms I don’t want to open here, and please, please don’t in the comments). that they didn’t have space for more people on programming.
But then it comes out that the programming staff didn’t even vet the authors until after their names through an LLM program, which is notoriously unreliable. I don’t know if I was kicked then, or when they did their “review” later, or if I made it to the final round before being voted off the island. There’s a lot that’s unclear about this process. All I know is that I’ve heard from friends that they got on programming with a lot fewer credits than I have, and don’t have a major, Hugo-worthy release coming out later this year. They didn’t attend NWC and did everything that was expected of them to earn their consideration. And now this frickin’ AI bullcrap after being one of the tens of thousands of authors to have the majority of their work stolen and loaded up into similar programs?
I know every WorldCon ConCom starts anew, and you can’t blame them for past mistakes. I agree. The problem is, the new committee is so focused on not repeating the mistakes of the last committee that they leave themselves open to new mistakes. This was a doozy!
I have a flight, I have a hotel, and I have a membership, but all the excitement is gone. There’s an empty feeling inside where once there were possibilities. Yes, I can still attend, network, promote. None of that has been taken away from me. But being on programming, showcasing everything you’ve learned and accomplished in the years since you last attended a WC is important. It’s validation. And yes, I still get that from Dragoncon, as well. And the many other cons I attend. And every time I sell something new, and every time I do the big shows like San Diego Comic Con, etc. But my heart wanted this. I debuted at Denvention in 2008. I got my current agent at Kansas City. I wanted this.
But it’s very possible a computer, not a living being, said No….
Seattle Worldcon 2025 Chair Kathy Bond today issued a public statement attempting to defend the use of ChatGPT as part of the screening process for program participants. The comments have been highly negative.
…We received more than 1,300 panelist applicants for Seattle Worldcon 2025. Building on the work of previous Worldcons, we chose to vet program participants before inviting them to be on our program. We communicated this intention to applicants in the instructions of our panelist interest form.
In order to enhance our process for vetting, volunteer staff also chose to test a process utilizing a script that used ChatGPT. The sole purpose of using this LLM was to automate and aggregate the usual online searches for participant vetting, which can take up to 10–30 minutes per applicant as you enter a person’s name, plus the search terms one by one. Using this script drastically shortened the search process by finding and aggregating sources to review.
Specifically, we created a query, including a requirement to provide sources, and entered no information about the applicant into the script except for their name. As generative AI can be unreliable, we built in an additional step for human review of all results with additional searches done by a human as necessary. An expert in LLMs who has been working in the field since the 1990s reviewed our process and found that privacy was protected and respected, but cautioned that, as we knew, the process might return false results.
The results were then passed back to the Program division head and track leads. Track leads who were interested in participants provided additional review of the results. Absolutely no participants were denied a place on the program based solely on the LLM search. Once again, let us reiterate that no participants were denied a place on the program based solely on the LLM search.
Using this process saved literally hundreds of hours of volunteer staff time, and we believe it resulted in more accurate vetting after the step of checking any purported negative results….
On April 23, the 2025 Hugo Awards voter packet became available for download by WSFS Members of the Seattle 2025 Worldcon. The packet is an electronic collection which helps voters become better informed about the works and creators on the ballot. Works which are included have been made available through the generosity of finalists and their publishers.
The Hugo Voter Packet will be available for download until the voting deadline on July 23 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Voters can make as many changes as they wish to their ballot until the deadline.
The voter packet contains complete texts of many Hugo-nominated works, preview versions of some works, and directions for finding some finalists’ works online. Some items have been made available through NetGalley, which requires a user account for access (registration is free).
The packet contains all of the finalists in these categories: Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Novelette, Best Short Story, Best Related Work, and Best Poem.
As for the other categories:
Best Series. Excerpts (or single works in a series) are provided.
Best Graphic Story or Comic. Complete versions of five finalists and an excerpt of the sixth are provided.
Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form. Only three finalists provided anything, trailers and images in two cases, and a link to view the entire movie Wicked.
Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form. Complete episodes of Fallout, plus the two Doctor Who and two Star Trek: Lower Decks finalists are provided. The sixth finalists did not respond.
Best Game or Interactive Work. In addition to other material, four of the finalists have included information on how to request an evaluation code to play the game.
Best Editor: Short Form. Most finalists have accompanied their statements with samples of edited stories. Brozek and Strahan have included complete copies of anthologies.
Best Editor: Long Form. Finalists have submitted statements, and in three cases copies of completed books.
Best Semiprozine. Samples of works from issues.
Best Fanzine. Finalists have provided various articles, excerpt Journey Planet has provided all eligible issues.
Best Fancast. Finalists have provided multiple episodes.
Best Fan Writer. Finalists have provided an introduction and multiple articles.
Best Professional Artist and Best Fan Artist. Sample works provided. In some cases, links to websites, with caution the works included there may have been published outside the eligibility period.
Lodestar Award: Five of six finalists have furnished complete works. The sixth is an excerpt.
As in previous years, WSFS and Seattle 2025 ask that voters honor publishers’ and creators’ request that they reserve these copies for their personal use only, and that they do not share these works with non-members of Seattle 2025.
Only members of Seattle 2025 can access the 2025 Hugo Award Voter packet and vote on the 2025 Hugo Awards. To become a member of Seattle 2025, see the registration page.
The Seattle 2025 Worldcon today opened online and mail voting for this year’s Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and Astounding Award for Best New Writer. All ballots must be received by July 23 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
[Introduction:James Bacon has been contributing to File 770 for over 20 years. He has worked on many conventions. He chaired Dublin 2019 An Irish Worldcon, in Dublin, Ireland and today is co-chairing of the first Eastercon to be held in Northern Ireland.]
By James Bacon: Solidarity not divisiveness is required at a time of adversity.
We should not blame good individual fans, for what is occurring in the US. We know that fandom and many amazing fans strive to be progressive, inclusive, and work at making their hobby diverse, equitable, welcoming, while working to share marginalised voices. It’s not perfect but fandom tries, and that is admirable, and I hope many are proud of the great work they do. More can be done, and we should balance expectations with a preparedness to work together, and to work for those who need support.
I am certain that both Kathy, chair of Seattle, and Joyce, chair of LA, despair at the actions taking place in the US.
The curtailment and impact on fans, especially those marginalised is dreadful, and many fans are taking the decision not to travel to the US, quite rightly prioritising their safety.
Working with Kathy and Joyce are hundreds of volunteers, probably over a thousand, they have names they are people, how must they feel, I cannot imagine, it’s a tough time, and how many are impacted by the crap that’s occurring in real life.
I am certain Kathy and Joyce will strive to ensure that their cons are as safe as they can make them, working to provide as diverse, inclusive and as welcoming as possible an experience for those present and tuning in at this troubling time.
They are not responsible for the actions of government officials at the border. Or the government.
It’s appalling to see people treated so badly right now in the US. It’s nonstop.
While entry into a country has always been precarious — I know the fans refused entry into the UK for saying they were “volunteering”, we know fans faced Visa issues trying to get to Ireland, and fans have a conscious awareness of these problems — it feels something altogether different is happening in the US.
At a time of Government-led fear, frustrations, attack, abuse, erosion of rights, we need to support the fans who are not only not responsible for these actions but must endure them, who are giving their all to run a progressive and welcoming event.
We need to come together in empathy and understanding to suggest, and offer tangible help. It’s right to be disappointed, horrified at the actions of a government but can we blame the fans? No.
Fascism has used the image of many sticks supporting an axe, strength in numbers.
We must now stand with fans who face challenges and offer them support, give them what they need to shine what is a light at a dark time. We must hold the line.
Fan endeavours can always improve, that’s the adventure, the challenge and they are not always perfect, or to one’s liking, but it’s a tough time, so we need to consider solidarity with the imperfect but good.
We are in a time where good, might have to be good enough, fans can improve, build, but the alternative, to capitulate and utterly destroy a convention and it’s fans, that’s unconscionable.
The Worldcon.
For some it will be an escape, others I hope it will strengthen and empower. Talking, listening, thinking, learning, conversing, forging new friendships and new initiatives.
That’s a good thing right?
While it’s dreadful that many international travelers cannot go, do not feel safe, I do not see them blaming Kathy and Joyce and their teams of amazing humans.
Kathy and Joyce and the hundreds of fans working together are responsible for the Seattle and LA Worldcon. What can we do to help them make that awesome, diverse and inclusive in a time of heavy government attack.
Fans must band together and not allow that spectre of a grim government policy of homogeny, unfairness and exclusion to succeed.
“The time has come to cancel or move the 2025 Seattle Worldcon. And to cancel or move the 2026 Los Angeles Worldcon.”
That’s a dreadful demand on volunteers, apart from anything else, it caves in to the bullying, it gives in to the right. Cancelling a convention that has contracts has massive consequences for those involved. In our community, asking the question is always fair, but demanding it without consideration or empathy, well that’s someone else’s behavior.
I also think stopping a progressive event in a country where people of that country need hope, solidarity, acceptance and a welcome as we look forward, reflect on the fiction that has predicted or resonates of this moment is exactly what the right would welcome.
Encouraging the Worldcon teams now is vital, I think and joining in remotely, recognising the issues, but helping them defy and share voices is crucial.
“It should not be too much trouble to move this year’s Worldcon to the nearby city of Vancouver, in Canada”
The statement resonates for all the wrong reasons, it’s like the many statement at this time, the bold brash statements full of promise, asserting a fact, selling a deal, and we know it is all a lie.
I’m sorry, because I hoped and thought Kamala would be the President, right up until she wasn’t.
I’m certain all con runners will be reflecting on how they can bring silenced or marginalised voices to their events, thinking and listening to those who are not as privileged, hearing what they need.
Now is a time of thoughtfulness and encouragement of our fan compatriots who are doing their best facing challenges not of their making. It is a time where helping them to achieve good, to support and show solidarity is incumbent upon us.
Libraries, bookshops, societies, clubs, small events, reading groups, small cons are now so very vital, the Worldcons are an opportunity for fans to support, encourage and empower new fans who like what they see, and help them bring the wonderful world of fandom to their community or friends.
It is a time to support anyone willing to build, if it is at all possible.
I also hope that the Worldcons are successful and well attended, and I anticipate they will be, because they are welcoming. They are looking forward, with hope, and full of people who are trying their best, to share a positive passion.
They need our help though, I can’t imagine what personal battles, challenges, impacts are occurring to the hundreds of volunteers involved, as they fight to overcome impacts I can’t even consider to bring the conventions to a success.
It is a time when we can show solidarity and we must hold the line together.
The Seattle Worldcon 2025 committee released the finalists for the Hugo Awards on April 6. Within a few weeks members of the convention will be given access to the Hugo Voter Packet. But you can start reading immediately for free many of the short fiction works, semiprozines, and fanzines, and listening to fancasts.
Samples are also available online from most of the other fiction and graphic novel finalists. (Amazon links have been used here for convenience.)
