Hugo Administrators Resign in Wake of ChatGPT Controversy

Another year, yet another Hugo Awards-adjacent controversy? That might be what fans of sci-fi lit and related media are thinking, with news today that a trio of leaders from the Seattle 2025 Worldcon, the upcoming iteration of the convention where the Hugos are annually presented, have resigned. This year, at least, the awards themselves—voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS)—seemingly aren’t directly involved in the dust-up.

In a post on Bluesky co-signed by Hugo administrator Nicholas Whyte, deputy Hugo administrator Esther MacCallum-Stewart, and World Science Fiction Society division head Cassidy, the trio announced they were resigning from their roles ahead of the Seattle event, which takes place in August. “We want to reaffirm that no LLMs or generative AI have been used in the Hugo Awards process at any stage,” the statement read in part, which might turn the heads of anyone who is a) interested in the Hugos, but b) not up on the latest controversy.

However, plenty of people in the community are well aware of what’s been going on. A quick journey to the blog File 770 will bring you up to speed, as will a visit to Seattle Worldcon 2025’s own site, which on April 30 shared a post clarifying exactly what role AI played in the upcoming event.

“We have received questions regarding Seattle’s use of AI tools in our vetting process for program participants,” Seattle Worldcon 2025 chair Kathy Bond wrote. “In the interest of transparency, we will explain the process of how we are using a Large Language Model (LLM). We understand that members of our community have very reasonable concerns and strong opinions about using LLMs. Please be assured that no data other than a proposed panelist’s name has been put into the LLM script that was used. Let’s repeat that point: no data other than a proposed panelist’s name has been put into the LLM script. The sole purpose of using the LLM was to streamline the online search process used for program participant vetting, and rather than being accepted uncritically, the outputs were carefully analyzed by multiple members of our team for accuracy.”

Bond’s post goes on to explain that “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. We have also not utilized an LLM in any other aspect of our program or convention.”

That last line is what today’s resignation post from Whyte, MacCallum-Stewart, and Cassidy also emphasized: that the Hugos themselves were not pulled into this process, which was meant to help Seattle Worldcon 2025 more efficiently compile the panels it offers to convention attendees.

Bond later posted an additional message on May 2, re-iterating her apology about using ChatGPT as part of the convention’s program vetting. “Additionally, I regret releasing a statement that did not address the concerns of our community,” she shared. “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.”

However, as File 770 pointed out, the damage has apparently already been done: the use of ChatGPT in any capacity in connection to Worldcon created a furor on social media. It also inspired at least one Hugo nominee to remove their book from contention: Yoon Ha Lee, whose Moonstorm was named a Lodestar Award finalist, which honors YA releases. In a May 1 post on Bluesky, the author linked to the April 30 Worldcon blog post noted above, and noted he was withdrawing the title from consideration.

Then, in a post shared today responding to File 770’s latest post announcing the resignations, the author wrote “All respect and I’m grateful to them for their work, sorry [things] came to this pass.”

Seattle Worldcon 2025 takes place August 13-17; the Hugo Awards will be handed out August 16.

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