Steven Soderbergh isn’t losing sleep over the rise of artificial intelligence in Hollywood.
The “Full Circle” limited series director told Variety during the Tribeca Festival that A.I. can “absolutely not” finish a full script on its own.
“I may be the Neville Chamberlain of this subject, but I am not afraid of A.I. in this specific context. It has no life experience,” Soderbergh said. “It’s never been hungover. It’s never made a meal for anybody it loved. It’s never been scared walking home late at night. It’s never felt insecure because somebody that it went to high school with 20 years ago has become incredibly successful. I’m not afraid of it. It’s just another tool.”
The “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” director added, “If it helps you finish a first draft of a script, great. But can it finish that thing and make it great on its own? Absolutely not. As of today, it is not keeping me up at night.”
One of the contentions of the ongoing WGA strike is the threatening rise of A.I. in the writers room. Soderbergh spoke on the strike itself, saying, “All I will say is that we are at a critical juncture in the business in a number of different areas, which is why this is so complicated. But I sure would like more information about how things are being viewed and monetized coming from the other side. The black box of it all doesn’t make me comfortable.”
“Black Mirror” creator Charlie Brooker recently admitted that he tried using ChatGPT to write an episode of the technology-driven psychological thriller anthology series.
“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 said. “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.’”
He noted, similar to Soderbergh, that ChatGPT did work as a tool to point out the overlapping themes across episodes.
Soderbergh’s upcoming Max limited series “Full Circle” centers on a botched kidnapping that uncovers an underworld of secrets in present-day New York City. Written by Ed Solomon, it stars Zazie Beetz, Claire Danes, Timothy Olyphant, Dennis Quad, and Jharrel Jerome. The series premieres July 13.
