SFWA changes Nebula Award rules to allow partial LLM usage (update: SFWA changed the rules again, now not allowing LLM usage)

Note: Wow, what a day this was for SFWA and the Nebula Awards. After only a few hours of hearing complaints from members, SFWA undid the rule change and will not NOT allow LLM-created or partially created works to be considered for the Nebulas. Complete details at the end of this column.

For 60 years, the Nebula Awards have been one of the highest honors in the science fiction and fantasy genre. Run by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, works eligible for the awards are nominated and voted on by association members.

Today in an email to members that was also posted on the organization website, SFWA President Kate Ristau announced that “the rules we used in 1965 to prepare the ballot and support voting would not stand up to scrutiny in 2025.” As a result, the SFWA Board, staff, the Nebula Awards Commissioner, and the SFWA Awards Rules Committee updated the rules to make sure they “provide a secure, fair, legitimate, and legal framework for nomination and recognition.”

As part of this, Ristau announced that SFWA updated the rules around category minimums (meaning how many finalists there are in each category) along with the rules for comics and poetry.

However, what’s getting the most attention and outrage are the changes with regards to works created by large language models (LLMs), which most people know as generative AI.

The new rules for the Nebula Awards now state:

• Works that are wholly written using generative large language model (LLM) tools are not eligible.

• Works that used LLMs at any point during the writing process must disclose this upon acceptance of the nomination, and the nature of the technology’s use will be made clear to voters on the final ballot.

I’m very disappointed in this change. Yes, I understand that by requiring disclosure of partial LLM-created works, as the announcement states, SFWA is letting “nominators and the voters” make the final decision on whether LLM use is acceptable.

BUT THEY’RE STILL ALLOWING SUCH WORKS ON THE NEBULA AWARDS FINAL BALLOT!

That’s BS! Allowing partial LLM-created works on the Nebula final ballot means some stories created exclusively by humans will not be honored by one of our genre’s most important awards. That’s how it works. If one story partially created by LLM is on the final ballot, a human-created story was kept off. It’s that simple.

And it won’t matter if after the Nebula Awards final ballot is released that stories partially created by LLMs are labeled as such. Because again, they’re already on the ballot! Even if SFWA members don’t vote for the story, having a story partially created by LLM as a Nebula finalist still legitimizes LLM usage.

In addition, it doesn’t matter if SFWA says “Works that are wholly written using generative large language model (LLM) tools are not eligible.” Because under these new rules, someone could have a LLM tool create an entire story. Then once the LLM is finished, that person could change a few words or make a few edits. That story is now eligible for a Nebula Award. This loophole is big enough for the inflated egos of Sam Altman and every LLM-loving CEO in the world to pass through.

Now all that said, I personally don’t think any LLM-created or partially-created story is going to make the final ballot of the Nebula Awards. The programs aren’t that good at true creation.

But with this rules change SFWA has still set the Nebula Awards up for failure. The organization is basically legitimizing LLM use in story creation in the minds of readers and writers. SFWA could have taken a principled stand on this issue. Instead, they did this.

I guarantee this isn’t what most SFWA members wanted. My prediction is SFWA members will be so angry about this change that the organization quickly backtracks. At least, I hope this is what happens. Because as things stand, I’m reconsidering my SFWA membership over this. I’m sure many others are doing the same.

Anyway, I strongly recommend SFWA members reach out to the organization and urge them to undo this change.

In the announcement of the LLM change, SFWA stated they “believe in our creators, and we want the Nebula Awards to recognize work that is human-created and expansive.”

SFWA picked a strange way to put those words into action.

Update

Oh for pete’s sake, just a few minutes after I posted my column, SFWA sent out an email undoing the LLM rule changes. LLM usage will now NOT be allowed under the Nebula rules.

The entire letter sent out by SFWA is below:

Dear Jason,

Earlier today, you received an email titled, “Note from the Board on This Year’s Nebula Rules.”

To be clear, SFWA does not support the use of LLM generative models in the production of creative work.

The Nebula Award Rules did not reflect our current policy and deeply held beliefs and values, and they were amended to reflect that.

With further input, today, we made an important change to the Nebula Awards Rules in two board votes that we would like to share with you:

Previous Text:

“Works that are wholly written using generative large language model (LLM) tools are not eligible.”

New Text:

“Works that are written, either wholly or partially, by generative large language model (LLM) tools are not eligible.”

-and-

Previous Text:

“Works that used LLMs at any point during the writing process must disclose this upon acceptance of the nomination, and the nature of the technology’s use will be made clear to voters on the final ballot”

New Text:

“Works that used LLMs at any point during the writing process must disclose this upon acceptance of the nomination, and those works will be disqualified.”

We will update our posted rules in the coming days to reflect this change.

We look forward to 2026 with optimism for the future of human-created work (that’s compensated, celebrated and supported)!

Keep on creating,

Kate Ristau
SFWA President