Earlier this week, individuals within the tabletop ecosystem began noticing that the Ennies one of the most prestigious awards in the industry, which have been held at Gen Con for over two decades allowed potential nominees to indicate whether their submissions include content generated with artificial intelligence. With continued controversy surrounding the use of generative AI in tabletop games, due to the technologys environmental impacts, its basis in exploitative labor from workers in the global south, and its foundations built on content largely scraped from artists without their consent, the revelation prompted a swift backlash on social media against the awards ceremony, which had already faced an earlier round of criticism for a lack of professionals of color in its judging pool.The AI Content Certification option on the submission form states that the awards show accepts products that include AI generated content, provided that the potential nominee discloses which part of their project is AI-generated. However, any element of the work that includes AI-generated content wouldnt be able to receive an award in that category. The example provided in the disclaimer states that a project with a human-made cover but artificially generated interior art would theoretically be eligible to win Best Cover Art but not Best Interior Art.The statement then goes on to say that this disclosure is largely on the Honor System, as the judges or submissions coordinator will not feasibly be able to identify which submissions are AI-generated with 100% accuracy, just as [they] currently cant identify potential copyright violations, or re-use of art from other products. Submissions that are found to be using AI after the fact will be delisted, and any awards revoked, with the creators in question to be potentially prohibited from submitting future products.An Ennie Awards spokesperson told Polygon that the award committee was working on a full response to public concerns. They also noted that this is the second year the policy has been in effect, and that the committee had received no feedback from the 900+ submissions that were required to check the box last year. With more attention given to the subject of AI-generated content in the wake of its use by Hasbro, members of the industry are perhaps more aware of the technology now than in previous years. The spokesperson went on to state that only 0.05% of submissions disclosed using AI content, with the majority of those submissions being for Online Content/Digital Media.The Ennies representative said that the awards committee will not change its eligibility requirements mid-year (as the deadline for submissions is March 31), noting that judges will have full access to this information and can take it into consideration as they review products. However, they stated that as the Ennies are and always have been a community award, the ENNIE Staff is currently considering putting the choice to a vote on the eligibility of AI content as part of this years awards ballot. The Ennies are fan-curated and fan-selected by a panel of volunteers.