Popular sci-fi horror series Black Mirror is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s Twilight Zone anthology. The show often tackles the danger of humans misusing advancing technology in creative and disturbing ways. So, it’s intriguing to hear the show’s creator, Charlie Brooker admit he used ChatGPT to write an episode of the show. However, according to Brooker, the script was terrible.
“I’ve toyed around with ChatGPT a bit,” states Brooker in the new issue of Empire magazine. “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.”
Brooker explains that ChatGPT clearly read summaries of past episodes and combined them into something entirely unoriginal. “Then if you dig a bit more deeply, you go, ‘Oh, there’s not actually any real original thought here.’” Brooker adds.
While ChatGPT’s Black Mirror script was lacking, the experience was a learning experience for Brooker. He realised he needed to branch out regarding how he writes Black Mirror episodes.
“I was aware that I had written lots of episodes where someone goes ‘Oh, I was inside a computer the whole time!'”, he chuckles. “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.”
With the upcoming Black Mirror episode ‘Beyond The Sea,’ Brooker takes the show in a new direction. The episode stars Aaron Paul, Kate Mara and Josh Hartnett. In Beyond The Sea, the main characters take on a difficult mission in an alternate version of 1969. Brooker told Empire the upcoming episode showcases a dystopian past, present and future. Beyond The Sea airs June 15th.
Jack Brassell is a freelance journalist and aspiring novelist. Jack is a self-proclaimed nerd with a lifelong passion for storytelling. As an author, Jack writes mostly horror and young adult fantasy. Also an avid gamer, she works as the lead news editor at Hardcore Droid. When she isn't writing or playing games, she can often be found binge-watching Parks & Rec or The Office, proudly considering herself to be a cross between Leslie Knope and Pam Beasley.
