Black Mirror creator, Charlie Brooker recently revealed in an interview with Empire that he attempted to have an AI chatbot write an episode for the techno-horror show. However, he admitted that the end result was shit. Nevertheless, fans are left wondering why Brooker didn’t go through with it and air the AI-written episode, believing it could have been an incredible addition to the series.
While Brooker didn’t give an explicit answer to this question, one can only assume that he abandoned the AI-written episode because it was simply not up to snuff. According to him, the AI looked up all the synopses of Black Mirror episodes and blended them together, which did not produce an original idea. Therefore, he recognized the need to avoid certain Black Mirror tropes, such as episodes where someone is revealed to be inside a computer the whole time, to maintain the show’s anthology-style format.
Brooker’s revelation has led many to question whether the ultimate Black Mirror episode could be one that is entirely written by an AI and sucks shit because of it. Aside from the technical challenges of creating such an episode, the idea is appealing as a clear technology is bad, actually narrative that could be explored by the show. However, Brooker’s experience suggests that this may be more difficult to execute than some fans might think.
One thing is for certain, Black Mirror continues to deliver the same level of gripping technological horror that we have come to expect from the series. Brooker has promised fewer episodes that follow familiar tropes and more episodes that offer new twists to the show. For instance, there is one episode set in an alternate version of 1969, which is sure to provide a refreshing change. Fans can look forward to the new season, which will be released on Netflix on June 15.
