The #HugoAward administrators have resigned from the Seattle #WorldCon over the convention committee's use of LLM's to vet program participants.

https://bsky.app/profile/nwhyte.bsky.social/post/3loh4ukgm7s2u

Hugo Awards Team Members Resign Over Use of AI by Worldcon #hugoawards #worldcon

https://graphicpolicy.com/2025/05/05/hugo-awards-team-members-resign-over-use-of-ai-by-worldcon/

Yikes. Worldcon 2025 used AI to help vet panelists, claiming time savings despite needing human review. The sci-fi community isn't happy, citing AI errors and ethics. Another fumble for the con. #Worldcon #AIethics #SciFiFandom

*sigh* I look away from #Worldcon for one year, and .... WTF were they thinking?

https://seattlein2025.org/2025/05/02/apology-and-response-from-chair/

@cellio "Some [writers] plan to file complaints under the GDPR." As they should! That would seem to be a rather blatant violation of even the literal text of the GDPR, specifically at least Article 16 on "right to rectification" and Article 22 on "automated individual decision-making, including profiling".

#WorldCon #WorldCon

Wow. The 2025 #Worldcon used ChatGPT to vet participants, with neither consent nor the opportunity to contest the predictable false results. They say they need this because web searches are slow. They have access to an "expert in LLMs", but don't have someone who can write a search script? In a science-fiction org??

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/05/01/seattle-worldcon-science-fiction-convention-vets-panelists-with-chatgpt - has links to Worldcon statement, with comments.

Starting to wonder how much Worldcon actually reflects SF fandom, especially after Hugo ballot censorship.

If anyone would like a moment of _non_-drama #Worldcon related stuff, #MichaelMoorcock has just left a comment on @CoraBuhlert’s Elric post, replying to her and artist @MichaelWhelan, solving the mystery of whether or not #Elric has pointed ears: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/25/fantastic-fiction-elric-of-melnibone-tortured-elf-emperor-with-a-cursed-sword/#comment-690

To further reduce the workload on volunteers, next year all #worldcon panellists will be AIs.

I didn't plan on going to this year's Worldcon because, you know, fascist state and all that. Still, I was going to attend virtually. No more. With this, it could be held in my back yard and be free to attend and my response would be "get off my lawn." https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/30/statement-from-worldcon-chair-2/

Seriously. In 2023 the Hugos were messed up. This year, an incomprehensible use of plagiarism engines for vetting panellists, many of whom are likely the victims of that plagiarism.

WorldCon 2026 is also in the US[LN]A. Failing a regime change that's really sucking the "world" out of the event. Organizers are going to have to knock that one out of the park or I think the whole Con is in trouble.

Oh my neighbor nerds of the PNW, you should have asked me or @emilymbender whether this was a good idea, and then you would have only been yelled at in private

#Seattle #Worldcon science fiction convention vets panelists with ChatGPT – Pivot to AI
https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/05/01/seattle-worldcon-science-fiction-convention-vets-panelists-with-chatgpt/

thanks @davidgerard , this is some high-grade disturbance-of-rocks-to-expose-the-crawlies

Responding to Controversy, Seattle Worldcon Defends Using ChatGPT to Vet Program Participants - https://file770.com/responding-to-controversy-seattle-worldcon/

#WorldCon #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #Seattle

Time for the @tomgauld.bsky.social cartoon again. Now with added irony of a sci-fi writer’s convention using such powerful technologies without considering the moral implications. #AI #WorldCon

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:uei24goezyiuh3nmyludd3fn/post/3lo2jzs32tf2w

What time is it?

It's time for Worldcon to be a pack of useless ignorant fuckwits! This time in ChatGPT flavour!

Christ on a fucking bike.

https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/30/statement-from-worldcon-chair-2/

#Worldcon #Hugos #FuckAI

Kathy Bond and the program committee for the Seattle #Worldcon must resign. What they did was racist, transphobic, and a violation of trust.

There are no ethical uses of LLMs.

https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/30/statement-from-worldcon-chair-2/

Weekly Notes: April 21-27, 2025: A week in the life of…. Thoughts, photos, links, and miscellany from the past week. https://michaelhans.com/eclecticism/2025/04/27/weekly-notes-april-21-27-2025

#CascadiaCon #DSSC #Norwescon #OryCon #WAPED #WeeklyNotes #Westercon #WorldFantasyConvention #Worldcon #Conventions #Personal

Slowly working my way through the first sort of several boxes of old con ephemera that were donated to me for the Norwescon historical archives. In addition to several decades of Norwescon stuff, there is stuff from several other cons as well. The stacks on my desk are (from right to left, opposite of normal) #Norwescon, Cascadiacon, #Worldcon, World Fantasy Con, Westercon, Orycon, NWSFS (above Orycon), and “miscellaneous other cons” to the far left. This is only about one and a quarter of the three and a half boxes I came home with. Oh, plus a bag of a few dozen issues of NWSFS’s ‘zine Westwind that were passed on to me before con (not pictured).

The NWC and NWSFS stuff will (eventually) be scanned and uploaded to our online archives. The rest, I’ll see if I can pass on to other interested parties.

@skribe
I'm not sure that the WSFS Constitution would allow the selected site to be changed, even if a concom and venue could be set up in time. Remote attendance is the best option for non-US attendees until Montreal 2027. #WorldCon

In his OpEd, Gary Westfahl asks for the next two WorldCon's (in Seattle and LA) to be cancelled because of the actions of the COTUS administration - https://file770.com/no-more-worldcons-in-the-united-states/

Should the WorldCon be removed from the US?

#SFandF #WorldCon #Seattle2025 #LA2026

Here Are the Finalists for the 2025 Hugo Awards https://reactormag.com/2025-hugo-finalists/

#Hugo #WorldCon #SF #sciencefiction

Hugo finalists announced - https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/hugo-awards/2025-hugo-award-finalists/

#Hugo #Awards #Seattle2025 #WorldCon #Writing

Octothorpe 132 is here early, because we are discussing this year’s Hugo Awards finalists! It’s almost as if our fingers are on the pulse, or something. Listen here: https://octothorpe.podbean.com/e/132-almost-everything-is-not-mac/

#ScienceFiction #Podcasts #HugoAwards #Worldcon #Worldcon2025 #SeattleWorldcon