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Mar 18, 2023

Charlie Brooker Had ChatGPT Write Him A Terrible ‘Black Mirror’ Episode

Black Mirror I haven’t heard quite as many people say “this is just like Black

Black Mirror

I haven't heard quite as many people say "this is just like Black Mirror!" in regard to future tech as much these days, as the series isn't quite as relevant as it once was heading into season 6. But if there's one category where this may be true it's the rise of generative AI, the things it can create (or steal) and how that may transform society in good, or probably bad ways.

I found this bit of an interview funny where Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker talked about how he actually had ChatGPT try to write a Black Mirror episode. Here is he speaking to Empire about it:

"I’ve toyed around with ChatGPT a bit," Brooker said. "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. 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."

This is the fundamental problem with ChatGPT is that it's not really inventing anything. It has references to the content of all past Black Mirror episodes and then cobbles them together in something that sounds vaguely like a plot for one. And it's just doing concepts really, not entire scripts, though it can do bits and pieces of those.

I figured I would ask ChatGPT myself to come up with a Black Mirror episode to see the kind of thing that Brooker was looking at when he did this. Here's an excerpt for what it spat out for me, an episode called "Reflections of Deception" (good start).

Things get much, much worse when you ask it to write a script for the episode:

Aghhh

Does the concept sound vaguely like an episode of Black Mirror? I guess. Would it be a good episode? Probably not. Would the concept of identity swapping be a least the basis for a good episode of Black Mirror, ignoring the larger plot structure and horrific dialogue? I meannnn, maybe?

This is where lines start to get blurred, and why some people think of generative AI as a creative "tool." As in, it might spark a base idea, and then you turn it into something more creative yourself. You just have to make sure that idea is not…stolen from somewhere else, as ChatGPT is getting this from somewhere. This identity swap idea sounds a whole lot like a more generic version of the plot of Altered Carbon to me.

It would be kind of funny to see Brooker actually do a full episode written by ChatGPT to see what it would be like, but I doubt that will actually happened. That would be a bit too…Black Mirror.

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