Science fiction and Comic-Con writers say goodbye to AI

In recent months, some major players in science fiction and popular culture have taken tougher stances against generative AI.

Separate decisions by San Diego Comic-Con and the Science Fiction Writers Association (SFWA) illustrate the depth of opposition to AI within some creative communities — though it’s certainly not the only one, with the music distribution platform Bandcamp also recently banned generative AI.

Back in December, when the SFWA announced it was updating its rules for the Nebula Awards. Works written entirely by large language models will not be eligible, while authors who used MAE “at any time during the writing process” will have to disclose such use, allowing voters to make their own decisions about whether such use will affect their support.

As reported by Jason Sanford Grapevine NewsletterThis change sparked immediate backlash because it seemingly opened the door to work created in part by LLMs. SFWA Board of Directors He issued an apology a few days laterHe wrote: “Our approach and wording were wrong and we apologize for the distress and mistrust we caused.”

The rules have been revised again, now stating that works “written, either in whole or in part, with Generative Large Language Model (LLM) tools are not eligible” for Nebula Awards and such work will be disqualified if LLMs were used at any time in its creation.

in Share followSanford said he’s glad to see the SFWA is listening to its members, and said he refuses to use AGI in his fiction writing — “not just because of this theft but also because the tools aren’t actually creative and defeat the whole point of storytelling.” However, he wrote, there are important questions that need to be answered about how broadly defined the use of LLM should be, especially since “these generative AI products are being forced on everyone by big companies.”

“If you use any of the online search engines or computer products these days, you’re probably using something that’s supported or associated with an LLM,” Sanford said. “For this reason, we must be careful that writers who use word processing and research tools with LLM components are not unfairly excluded from awards like the Nebulas or attacked by readers and other writers.”

The massive annual San Diego Comic-Con faced similar controversy this month after artists took notice of rules allowing artificial intelligence-generated art to be displayed — but not sold — at the convention’s art gallery. After the artists complained, the rules were up Softly changed to say“Materials generated by artificial intelligence (AI), whether partially or completely, are not permitted in the art display.”

While Comic-Con’s apology was less public than the SFWA’s, some artists shared email responses from art fair president Glen Wooten, who apparently said that the previous rules had been in place “for a few years” and that they were effective as a deterrent, as no one entered AI-generated art into the fair.

“But the issue has become more problematic than ever, so it is necessary to use sharper language: No! Plain and simple,” Wooten reportedly said.

It’s probably safe to assume that other organizations will announce similarly hard-line stances this year — and that these communities will continue to debate the larger issues.