Our AI Policy

At Stellar, we are human-first, AI-skeptical, and technology optimistic.

Last updated // September 29, 2026

Science fiction has explored the nuances of machine intelligence since the dawn of the genre, and a magazine about science fiction should take a considered position, rather than a reactive one. We see AI as a tool: immensely powerful, often overhyped, and easy to misuse.

This is why we draw a clear line with our work and processes. First and foremost, we will never publish any AI-generated audio, art, or writing in our podcast or magazine. We do, however, use AI to help run our business.

We are a small independent publication, and AI tools have allowed us to do things that require the kinds of budgets and resources we simply don't have. But AI never replaces a paid contributor. Every story, cover, and voice in Stellar comes from a person we pay.

Here's how we define the lines for AI use across the various parts of Stellar.

Fiction

We will never publish a story written by AI. Our contracts explicitly ban AI writing, and we check every accepted submission with Pangram before sending authors an offer letter. If we find AI-written work after acceptance, we withdraw the offer, and may decline future submissions from that author.

As AI tools evolve, so will their ability to mimic human writing. But we are committed to filtering out AI writing to the best of our ability.

AI allowed

  • Research
  • Brainstorming
  • Outlining (structuring your own ideas, not letting AI come up with the story)
  • Proofreading (spelling, grammar, punctuation)
  • Formatting

AI banned

  • Drafting
  • Writing
  • Revising (asking AI to rewrite, tighten, or restyle your sentences)

Art

We will never publish AI-generated art. Our contracts explicitly ban the use of AI assets, and we require artists to provide layered project files as proof of process. We don't accept unsolicited pitches from artists, so that we can seek out vetted artists who have only human-made work in their portfolios. AI-generated art is evolving at an alarming rate, but we are committed to filtering it to the best of our ability.

AI allowed

  • Generating mockups to explore ideas and what-ifs, as long as no generated asset goes into the final piece
  • Resizing or rescaling (standard resampling only; no generative AI upscaling)
  • Editing tools inside software (e.g. magic mask in Photoshop)

AI banned

  • Textures
  • AI filters or style transfer
  • Background assets
  • Generative fill features to "extend" images

Podcast

We will never publish AI-generated audio of any kind: vocals, music, or sound effects. This includes cloning human-recorded voices with AI.

AI allowed

  • Drafting copy (podcast titles and show notes), edited and rewritten by us
  • Audio clean up tools inside software (e.g. noise removal)

AI banned

  • Voice generation/cloning
  • Music generation
  • Sound effects generation

Workflows

We use AI tools behind the scenes, the way we use editing software and spreadsheets: to transcribe, organize research, and draft rough working documents. This site, for example, was built with Claude Code.

To be clear, we will never put externally submitted stories or art into AI tools, and your work will never be used to train AI, by us or with our permission. Our AI use is kept strictly to internal work by Stellar staff, and the day-to-day admin of running our business, like email automations, scheduling, bookkeeping, etc.

The only exception to this is Pangram, which is the current industry standard AI-writing detection tool. The ability of AI to mimic human writing is evolving quickly, and we can no longer rely solely on human instinct to catch AI-writing. Human editors read and evaluate every submitted story, but before offer letters are sent, we double check with Pangram. According to Pangram's policy, they never use submitted writing to train their models.

Conclusion

As with all technology, AI is changing at a breakneck pace. And like many, we too have concerns about the environmental impacts of AI data centers. So this policy is not set in stone, and we will revisit it every year to reevaluate it based on industry trends, our own learnings, and feedback from our collaborators and audience.

If you have any questions or concerns, we welcome your thoughts at stellarscifi@loreparty.com.

Abu & Leo

Co-founders, Stellar Science Fiction