Yahoo Sports Black Mirror creator says season 6 almost had an AI-written episode
After writing multiple Black Mirror episodes about technology being the ultimate evil, Charlie Brooker decided to put that theory to the test.
The Black Mirror creator says he "toyed around with ChatGPT" to see if AI technology could pen a new episode of the dystopian sci-fi series. "The first thing I did was type 'generate Black Mirror episode,'" Brooker revealed in a new issue of Empire Magazine. "It [came] up with something that, at first glance, reads plausibly, but on second glance, is s---."
After taking the time to really consider the AI-generated script, Brooker realized where the program had gone wrong. "All it's done is look up all the synopses of Black Mirror episodes, and sort of mush them together," he said. "Then if you dig a bit more deeply you go, 'Oh, there's not actually any real original thought here.'"
Nick Wall/Netflix 'Black Mirror' season 6
The Emmy-winning writer was not impressed by the final product, but the experiment still had a big impact on the upcoming sixth season of the show. Seeing how the program tried to mimic Black Mirror taught Brooker what not to do. More importantly, he realized it was time to try something new.
"I was aware that I had written lots of episodes where someone goes 'Oh, I was inside a computer the whole time!'" Brooker explained. "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."
Brooker described the epiphany as a "nice, cold glass of water in the face."
Inspired by that revelation, the new season will take the Black Mirror into uncharted territory. Brooker has said the season will tonally resemble past episodes but content-wise, fans should "expect the unexpected." Even the trailer was loaded with surprises, offering a journey through time and space as it explored vastly different realities.
The season, arriving to Netflix on June 15, also features four more standalone episodes with their own technological twists and terrifying new worlds. Other stars include Aaron Paul, Annie Murphy, Salma Hayek Pinault, Ben Barnes, Michael Cera, Himesh Patel, and Zazie Beetz.
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