ChatGPT may feel like it’s straight out of a Black Mirror episode but it definitely won't be replacing the show's writers.
During an interview with Empire Magazine, Charlie Brooker revealed he tried to get ChatGPT to write an episode of Black Mirror but wasn’t impressed with how it turned out.
“I’ve toyed around with ChatGPT a bit,” he 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 s**t.”
"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 s**t."
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ChatGPT was released in November 2022 and uses generative AI to provide responses to human input.
“All it’s done is look up all the synopses of Black Mirror episodes, and sort of mush them together,” he explained. “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.”
Much of the criticism of ChatGPT comes from this very issue – it isn’t actually providing any sort of original output. Many of its responses are generatively sourced from a database that includes numerous online publications, which raises a big question about authorship. Ethics aside, Brooker did find one use for ChatGPT – showing him what not to do.
“I was aware that I had written lots of episodes where someone goes ‘Oh, I was inside a computer the whole time!’”, he laughed. “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’s not the first time ChatGPT has come up with an unpopular idea, with World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas revealing it told him to revisit one of the game’s least-loved expansions.
EXCLUSIVE 🤖
Charlie Brooker got ChatGPT to write a #BlackMirror episode – but it was "shit," he tells Empire.
READ MORE: https://t.co/unWG3NbSgv pic.twitter.com/XaAbLg34dM
— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) June 6, 2023
Brooker also debuted a new image from Black Mirror Season 6 episode, Beyond the Sea, starring Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, and Aaron Paul.
The episode is a “sort of dystopian past, present, and future,” he explained. It’s essentially an impossible mission, set in an alternate 1969.
Want to read more about Black Mirror? Check out our thoughts on the best Black Mirror episodes as well as exactly when you can watch the next season of Black Mirror on Netflix.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.