Kat Kourbeti
SF/F writer & narrator. Hugo-winning podcast editor at Strange Horizons magazine. Lapsed film critic & perennial theatre kid. BSFA's theatre columnist. Team ADHD. Greek!
📍 London, UK
✨ she/her 🏳️🌈❤️💜💙
🌍💌 darthj.uno
🐘📸 etc: linktr.ee/darthjuno
- Reposted by Kat Kourbeti[Not loaded yet]
- I have never hit the subscribe button this fast!! GO GO GO
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiDespite what some adults seem to think, teenagers are fully human.
- Just finished watching this absolute masterpiece of a video essay which breaks down the cultural background of the ballads used to name the Covey people in the Hunger Games books. @dovemakes.bsky.social does a fantastic job with all the research, and even sings a couple of times in this one 🤯
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiIf people feel like chucking a little money at a feline cause, my friend & neighbour rescued a pregnant cat, and is trying to get them to the vet, and then rehomed. Or if you want a kitten in London, I guess? www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiCome Back Wrong by Izzy Wasserstein "The bog presses down like a lover, & in time you believe this one will not betray you" Read the full poem at the link to the latest issue in our bio!
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiYuuuuup. Being an asshole limits your options. Or to put it another way, in any major project there's room for maybe one asshole. That's probably not going to be you, and you shouldn't fight anyone for that role.
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiSo I looked at the "query" that Worldcon used, and as someone who has written at least two books on enterprise AI and many many developer columns on how to build AI apps, and, well, the slim hope that I'd had that they may have done things right has been dashed. A 🧵
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiA lot of people have made very good points about this issue and I don't feel a need to reiterate them, but there is one aspect of this that I've been sitting with overnight and I think is worth drawing out and looking at, which is the prompt given to ChatGPT to "evaluate [person] for scandals." 1/
- May 6th Statement From Chair and Program Division Head: As promised last Friday, I am publishing this statement, in conjunction with a statement below from our Program Division Head, to provide a transparent explanation of our panelist selection process, a… seattlein2025.org?p=3918
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiEvery con does programming differently but cons that ask you to fill in a form will probably also Google you. But they could miss information you consider important. So here is the key to filling in a programme form: Facts are more important than wordcount. 1/3
- re: the current Worldcon fuckery, I need someone with more concom knowledge than me to explain how usual it is or isn't for the program track leads to pre-select panelists based on existing personal knowledge rather than by vetting all applicants, with rejections then being sent *before* any vetting
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiLONDON: There are still tickets available for our Ready Singer One choir concert with Press X this Sunday, 11 May! We've been rehearsing hard (so tired, so many songs in my brain) and it's sounding AMAZING. I have learned Old Norse and Sanskrit for this. COME. claphamgrand.com/event/ready-...
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiThe amount of people I've seen using the hallucinating thief machine to defend the use of the hallucinating thief machine makes me feel like I'm in the last reel of a Bodysnatchers movie. I have seen someone, with their whole chest, defend it because it gives 'probably accurate information'.
- I honestly was not expecting the "sometimes ChatGPT just makes stuff up to make you happy" to be this easily verifiable. This is using the prompt that @seattlein2025.org said they used to vet authors for controversies. ChatGPT will literally invent new people with fake problems to fulfil the prompt
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiSo we're now 3 apologies deep and the only 2 people who have publicly resigned are folks who were not involved in anyway with the choice to use chatgpt.
- May 6th Statement From Chair and Program Division Head: As promised last Friday, I am publishing this statement, in conjunction with a statement below from our Program Division Head, to provide a transparent explanation of our panelist selection process, a… seattlein2025.org?p=3918
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiI have to sleep (ugh) BUT this is how to fix it: Anyone who used ChatGPT and approved the generative AI content has got to go! I know you’ve worked hard! It sucks, but you have to apologize/resign! For the health/legitimacy of the WHOLE OF WSFS, not just Seattle’s convention. That’s it! Okay bye.
- May 6th Statement From Chair and Program Division Head: As promised last Friday, I am publishing this statement, in conjunction with a statement below from our Program Division Head, to provide a transparent explanation of our panelist selection process, a… seattlein2025.org?p=3918
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiThere are! Actual living science fiction writers! Who have lived through the last few decades! and have a stake in the immediate future! You can invite to them speak!! I promise, many of them are at least as insightful as a white man who has more name recognition but has been dead for 60 years!!!!
- Meeting another player on a random level of Journey and playing with them until we reach the mountaintop together 😭 iykyk
- Let me reiterate that reiterations are still patronising 🙄 and that the wrong people resigned over this. Also where is the recognition that your committee's actions ARE what led to the Hugo Admin team resigning? Oh right, taking responsibility for that would be adding more fuel to the raging fire.
- May 6th Statement From Chair and Program Division Head: As promised last Friday, I am publishing this statement, in conjunction with a statement below from our Program Division Head, to provide a transparent explanation of our panelist selection process, a… seattlein2025.org?p=3918
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiWhat I failed to mention is that this auction is in time for your name to not only be a character in my next book, but that MY NEXT BOOK IS THE CHAOS WALKING SEQUEL! So, yeah, bid, raise some money for trans causes, and I'll probably kill you horribly on paper! It's what you would have wanted.
- AMAZINGNESS! How would you like to have YOUR NAME as a character in my next book AND raise money for trans rights charities? WELL ASK NO MORE! Auction is here. Bidding starts at £10. Let’s raise some money! www.32auctions.com/organization...
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- We're looking for a new webmaster at @strangehorizons.bsky.social - could it be you? If you are familiar with PHP/MySQL with an understanding of Wordpress, have experience with Wordpress theme design, and are able to troubleshoot both technical and non-technical issues, we'd love to hear from you!
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- Still thinking about Thunderbolts* and getting v emotional today. Who knew I was a Yelena fan?? Not me! Not until last night! If my superhero book could move people someday the way this movie has moved me, I'll be so so happy. So back to drafting until the story is all on the page 🥹
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- Glasgow was exemplary in how to handle the fallout of a major crisis, provide as much as possible to the virtual arm of the con given limited tech resources, & respect the community at every turn. They were classy & steadfast the whole way through. Other bids should be looking to them for guidance.
- Reposted by Kat Kourbetilove when people get caught using LLMs for some important analytical task "to save time" and then they're like "don't worry we rigorously vetted the results." man....you either saved time OR rigorously vetted the results, but i promise you didn't do both
- Well, I've just requested all data held on me by the convention, highlighting the programming vetting process. I want the prompt, the resulting garbage, and any human-made comments that may have followed. Let's see how long it takes them to comply.
- I've just sent an email to Seattle Worldcon about all this, but I wanted to highlight this for everyone else: Their own Privacy Policy does NOT give them permission to share your personal data (even "just" your name) with genAI seattlein2025.org/about/privac...
- Welp, I just came out of Thunderbolts* and I am a weepy mess, in the best possible way God I missed good superhero movies 😭
- Happy May Day from 10 year old Kat! In Greece we traditionally make flower wreaths/crowns from wildflowers on this day, and celebrate labour activism and unions. My grandfather was a union rep his whole life, and he also taught me how to make wreaths. I try to follow his steps as much as I can.
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiApropos of nothing at all, I am once again gonna mention that Flights of Foundry registration is open. Just gonna slide this across the table and remind folks, conventions don't have to be awful and have multiple face-palm moments a year. I promise.
- Our annual conference, Flights of Foundry, is OPEN for registration! Check out our Guests of Honour: Sheree Renée Thomas for editing, Vajra Chandrasekera for prose, and Anna Martino for Translation. Sign up today! 👇👇👇 flights-of-foundry.org/
- Reposted by Kat KourbetiHappy holidays and congratulations to next year's Hugo nominee in Best Related Work for your diligent research and response to this year's thing
- In addition to all the A+ responses and QTs around the ethics of LLM use and its environmental impact, condescendingly reiterating a statement in your post does not clarify or reassure people. This entire statement is patronising and the community will not stand for it. Shame on this concom tbh.
- Statement From Worldcon Chair: We have received questions regarding Seattle’s use of AI tools in our vetting process for program participants. In the interest of transparency, we will explain the process of how we are using a Large… seattlein2025.org?p=3859
- tru
