In due part to Black Mirror, we’ve all gotten a glimpse of what technology can do in the future (and present…). And as far as creator Charlie Brooker can tell, AI is going to play a serious role behind the scenes of movies and TV shows as well.
Charlie Brooker recently appeared at the Edinburgh TV Festival, where he said that he had a conversation where he and another writer discussed the possibilities of a machine being fed scripts. These would in turn be given an AI-generated version, thus allowing for instant “feedback” on the material. “That felt plausible to me, because basically the script becomes a prompt. That worries me.” As far as what he hopes in terms of writers in the business, he added, “I hope there’s still a job for keeping keyboards warm with flesh.”
Charlie Brooker has been quite open about the use of AI when it comes to writing. And while he had some initial fears, he didn’t think it could reproduce much of what makes human writing so special. “I said to ChatGPT, ‘Go give me an outline for a Black Mirror story.’ And as it’s coming through in the first couple of sentences you feel a cold spike of fear, like animal terror. Like I’m being f*cking replaced. I’m not even gonna see what it does. I’m gonna jump out the f*cking window. Then as it carries on you go, ‘Oh this is boring. I was frightened a sec ago, now I’m bored because this is so derivative.” Then again, this was two years ago, and with AI programs enhancing significantly since, who knows…
Charlie Brooker has explored AI via Black Mirror many times before, notably in episodes such as “Be Right Back”, “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” and “Joan Is Awful”, which gained a lot of traction since it was released during both the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, both of which put the use of artificial intelligence at the forefront. The most recent season of Black Mirror also featured an episode that explored AI. You can read our 8/10 review of that season here.
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