Last week, WorldCon was hit with a leftist cancel culture mob demanding heads roll because of its organizers using ChatGPT to assist in programming selections, and now the convention has announced resignations in the midst of yet another science fiction scandal.
Worldcon in recent years has been a complete trainwreck, ever since the Sad Puppies debacle where the convention chose identity politics virtue signaling over what normal readers wanted, the organization has become more insular and problematic. In an effort to oust anyone who thought differently than the most vocal of their extremist mob, they have made countless mistakes to cause more problems for themselves as no one apparently undersrtands how to run a science fiction convention among those left.
In 2018, they took an extremist angle, banning an author under false pretenses of libeling him a “racist bully” on their website, of which they ended up having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting to eventually lose, apologize, and pay off their libel settlement, and matters only became worse from there.
In 2022, Worldcon Washington D.C. had a programming failure where the director stepped down and Mary Robinette Kowal eventually stepped in to cause her own problems with the convention. This was followed by having weapons manufacturer Raytheon sponsor the convention, creating a dystopian environment of the convention where everyone was required to wear masks.
In 2023, they made matters worse by going to Chengdu China, a place where the government routinely violates human rights, and where the CCP actually got involved in the Hugo Awards selection, disqualifying different works under the dark of night. Eventually, the man in charge of the selection, Dave McCarty would then get canceled and shown he was not welcome at the 2024 convention.
This year has already been fraught with turmoil, with bizarre political posts shrieking about Donald Trump and speciously warning overseas attendees that there might be some danger in coming to Seattle, even though there is none in reality. However, this wasn’t the event that caused them a problem.
Last week, it was revealed they used ChatGPT for their programming selections to help widdle down the list of 1,300 applicants who wanted to appear on panels. They didn’t reveal the algorithm or what was used, but they were torched and flayed on BlueSky for their post admitting the use of AI, where several of the authors there appear to be panicked about it existing in the first place.
Now, two members of the WorldCon committee have stepped down in the midst of all the chaos. They issued a 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
Apparently it was in protest of the use of AI to the point they had to virtue signal about generative AI in the statement, another hilarious move that will accomplish nothing as the world of artificial intelligence moves on whether they approve of it or not.
Many over on BlueSky and different science fiction sites have speculated that this move might be in protest of the selection of panelists with the use of AI in it.
Ironically, the Hugo Awards has seen some of the lowest number of nominating votes in history, with some categories only having 18 people voting for a potential nominee, signifying how fare the convention has fallen and how few care anymore.
What do you think of multiple WorldCon bosses dropping out over what appears to be AI use? Leave a comment and let us know.
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The masks say everything we need to know.
Does "Cassidy" really only have a pretentious one-word name?
No loss whatsoever having them gone. Maybe there is hope moving forward if they bring in normal people to replace these clowns.
I see masks, I see sheep.
Never wore one. Will never.