Created by Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror is a British anthology series delving into near-future dystopias through various genres, primarily using speculative fiction with sci-fi elements. Drawing inspiration from The Twilight Zone, the show critiques modern society using technology and media themes, with Brooker taking the lead in writing most episodes.
Last week at the International Convention Centre SXSW event in Sydney, Booker said that artificial intelligence (AI) probably will never match the complexity of human creative expression, recalling feeling a blend of panic and despair when asking ChatGPT to draft an episode of his critically acclaimed series.
Cold Spike of Fear
“I said to ChatGPT, ‘Go give me an outline for a Black Mirror story,’” Booker said. “And as it’s coming through in the first couple of sentences you feel a cold spike of fear, like animal terror. Like I’m being fucking replaced. I’m not even gonna see what it does. I’m gonna jump out the fucking window.”
However, as Booker admitted to the capacity crowd at the event, that unease quickly left him.
“Then as it carries on you go, ‘Oh this is boring. I was frightened a sec ago, now I’m bored because this is so derivative.’ It’s just emulating something. It’s hoovered up every description of every Black Mirror episode, presumably from Wikipedia and other things that people have written, and it’s just sort of vomiting that back at me. It’s pretending to be something it isn’t capable of being.”
Messy People
He also remarked that AI is here to stay and can be a very powerful tool, though added on AI chatbot’s constrained ability to produce creative narratives and clever plot developments.
“I can’t quite see it replacing messy people,” he said.
Although Booker is clearly confident AI will not replace him soon, the Hollywood writers’ strike this year has shown some do not agree with him. It remains to be seen what the future holds for artistic expression of the written word, yet one thing is clear human creativity has a new rival in that field for sure.
