I would like to apologise for the problems with the closed captioning during the Hugo Awards ceremony. I am dreadfully sorry for my decisions that led to us using a system that failed. I would like to apologise to anybody who we have upset by this and we totally understand that our members and community will be disappointed in this failure for which I accept total responsibility. I am very sorry and am ready to apologise personally to those who were hurt.
Sometimes we put too much trust in new technology and that was my failing tonight. Artificial intelligence still has a way to go in coping with human expression in all its variety. The poor transcription was stopped, but not before it undercut a number of very important speeches. Stopping it also deprived some of our audience of access to the later speeches. We are working on producing the corrected archival version of the ceremony which will be available online.
My sincerest apologies,
James Bacon
Chair, Dublin 2019 – An Irish Worldcon
