The headline is a bit misleading. She wasn't removed after embracing artificial intelligence, she was invited as guest of honour after already embracing artificial intelligence; she was removed after some people kicked up a fuss. I quoted both her and her husband, who is a professor of machine learning, in my articles on AI art back in February 2023.
I would say this is a good example of cancel culture in the fandom. Her position as guest of honour was cancelled for her views on a topic which is only tangentially related to the reason she was picked. She is still an extremely talented and decorated writer with a long history in the fandom.
The convention might claim to be neutral but their actions say otherwise. Would they cancel other guests that are against the use of AI art generation? It seems unlikely but why would one view on a contentious topic make people uncomfortable and not others? It's not even true that all artists are against the use of AI in various contexts.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
The headline is a bit misleading. She wasn't removed after embracing artificial intelligence, she was invited as guest of honour after already embracing artificial intelligence; she was removed after some people kicked up a fuss. I quoted both her and her husband, who is a professor of machine learning, in my articles on AI art back in February 2023.
I would say this is a good example of cancel culture in the fandom. Her position as guest of honour was cancelled for her views on a topic which is only tangentially related to the reason she was picked. She is still an extremely talented and decorated writer with a long history in the fandom.
The convention might claim to be neutral but their actions say otherwise. Would they cancel other guests that are against the use of AI art generation? It seems unlikely but why would one view on a contentious topic make people uncomfortable and not others? It's not even true that all artists are against the use of AI in various contexts.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~