Gamescom 2025: The AI bug that scheduled appointments without permission and how it affected attendees.
Gamescom 2025, the world's largest video game trade fair, was the protagonist of an unexpected controversy this week: its app used artificial intelligence to schedule meetings between attendees without their consent. The initiative, which promised to facilitate networking, ended up generating criticism, confusion and a quick retraction by the organizers. Below, we tell you everything that happened and its implications.
1. What really happened?
The official Gamescom app implemented a new feature: an AI-based meeting generator aimed at suggesting meetings between like-minded professionals. However, such meetings were automatically scheduled and confirmed without users' approval. (404 Media)
This resulted in several attendees finding unsolicited appointments in their calendars, some of which had already been "accepted" by other participants, who also claimed not to have authorized anything.
2. Reactions: generalized discomfort and discomfort.
- Graham Day, a partner at Twitch, reported that he had 9 AI-generated meetings that had been accepted by others without previous knowledge.
- Chris Schilling, editorial director of Lost In Cult, called the feature "absolutely heinous shit" and criticized the fact that the user had to manually reject them.
- Robin-Yann Storm, product and UX designer, noted that the feature generated "a lot of noise, but little value."
- Henry Stockdale, senior editor at UploadVR, stated that the system caused him to have a mini panic attack while boarding his plane, as some appointments coincided with previously scheduled meetings off the tarmac.
Solution: Immediate retraction by Gamescom.
In response to numerous complaints, Gamescom decided to immediately deactivate the automatic appointment generation feature and issue an official apology.
In their statement, they acknowledged that the system had not delivered the expected value and announced the complete elimination of automatically generated meetings, accompanied by apologies for the inconvenience caused.
4. Reflection: the fine line between innovation and excess
The episode highlights how artificial intelligence technologies, when implemented without transparency or adequate testing, can generate more problems than solutions.
Although Gamescom was quick to apologize, the incident leaves a lesson: AI should not be imposed without clear user consentespecially in professional environments.
Despite the failure, the presence of AI at Gamescom was not limited to this episode: NVIDIA presented its assistant Project G-AssistThe event, aimed at optimizing PC gaming settings, while Microsoft hosted a roundtable for developers on how AI can improve efficiency.
Conclusion
Gamescom 2025's experience with its automated meeting generator is a stark reminder of the risks of applying AI without control. What was born as a tool intended to facilitate networking turned into a widespread annoyance. The key is to implement technology with solid ethical criteria, transparency, and always giving the user control over their interactions.
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