Ever since its first season, Black Mirror has addressed topical themes that explore issues about modern society such as the rise and threat of technology. While the episodes are fictional, the audience felt that the series became a prophecy about what is going to happen in the future.
One of the major topics nowadays is the rise of artificial intelligence and its use for creation as well as its threat to our society as it seems to be inevitable that it will become more reliable in years to come.
We've also seen a trend recently where people would use AI to generate any type of write-up. As a result, it has also become one of the points of negotiation right now in the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike as there is fear that studios will use them to write scripts instead of actual writers.
Charlie Brooker Tried to Use ChatGPT to Write an Episode of Black Mirror
In a recent interview with Empire, Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker revealed that he tried to use ChatGPT to write an episode of the series, but the results for him were "shit."
"I’ve toyed around with ChatGPT a bit. The first thing I did was type 'generate Black Mirror episode' and it comes up with something that, at first glance, reads plausibly, but on second glance, is shit," he shared.
"Because all it’s done is look up all the synopses of Black Mirror episodes, and sort of mush them together. Then if you dig a bit more deeply you go, 'Oh, there’s not actually any real original thought here.' It’s [1970s impressionist] Mike Yarwood — there’s a topical reference."
However, Brooker still had a useful experience as it made him realize that the problem is more on human beings and it teaches him about what not to do in the future.
"I was aware that I had written lots of episodes where someone goes 'Oh, I was inside a computer the whole time!'" he said with a chuckle.
"So I thought, 'I’m just going to chuck out any sense of what I think a Black Mirror episode is.' There’s no point in having an anthology show if you can’t break your own rules. Just a sort of nice, cold glass of water in the face."
It really feels eerie to see how AI has become reliable for a lot of people and it's been used in various ways whether it's generating art or solving problems in an instant. The series has certainly given us an overview of its advantage and disadvantage.
Brooker's action also proved that AI is not hugely reliable yet when it comes to generating a story or script although it doesn't mean that it will not be better in the near future and we should see it as an alarming sign of what's about to come soon.
Also Read: Netflix Unveils Official Trailer and Release Date for Black Mirror Season 6
The sixth season of Black Mirror is set to release on Netflix this June 15. You can check more details about it here.
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