Charlie Brooker, the creative genius behind the hit anthology series “Black Mirror,” recently disclosed an intriguing experiment he conducted with ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot. In an attempt to craft a “Black Mirror” episode, Brooker turned to ChatGPT, only to be met with less than stellar results.
Speaking at a panel during the SXSW event at Sydney’s International Convention Centre, as reported by The Guardian, Brooker delved deeper into the experiment.
“I said to ChatGPT, ‘Go give me an outline for a Black Mirror story,'” Brooker shared. “The initial sentences were chilling, striking fear into me as if my job was on the line. The idea of being replaced by a machine was genuinely terrifying. But as the AI continued to generate the script, my fears dissipated.”
According to Brooker, the lack of human touch and originality in ChatGPT’s writing was evident. The chatbot, he said, simply regurgitated information it had gathered from various sources, such as Wikipedia.
“As it carries on you go, ‘Oh, this is boring. I was frightened a second ago, now I’m bored because this is so derivative,'” Brooker commented. “It’s just emulating something. It’s hoovered up every description of every ‘Black Mirror’ episode and is just vomiting that back at me. It’s pretending to be something it isn’t capable of being.”
Brooker also addressed the criticism “Black Mirror” has faced following its move from Channel 4 to Netflix, transitioning from a British-centric narrative to a more global appeal, featuring Hollywood stars and happier tones.
“One of the criticisms we sometimes get is, ‘I prefer the show when it was British and everyone in it was miserable,'” Brooker stated. “I understand those complaints. The show’s changing tone was never a mandate from Netflix but stemmed from my own evolving interests.”
Regardless of the changing dynamics, “Black Mirror” continues to be a popular choice for viewers on Netflix.