As the highly anticipated Black Mirror season 6 gears up to hit the silver screen at Netflix, series creator Charlie Brooker reveals some of the new tricks he tried and failed to bring the anthology drama to life. In a typical Black Mirror-esque outturn, Brooker reflects that the experience taught him how not to use technology in the future.
Throughout its disconnected and independent episodes, the hit dystopian series narrates different tales in which the resolution is more or less similar— the dangers of using technology irresponsibly. Since its debut in 2011, Black Mirror has used plot twists, bizarre scenarios, and explicit scenes to depict what it would look like if society became machine-dependent. With Black Mirror season 6 hitting Netflix in June and the refined development of artificial intelligence since the latest season came out in 2019, both excitement and intrigue are building up from fans to see what direction the show will take. Ahead of the new season, Brooker recently revealed that the sixth installment stretched its parameters and will include more "crazy swings" than ever before.
Black Mirror's complex relationship with technology has always been apparent on the screen, but now, the angst and futuristic doubting has even translated behind the scenes. In a recent interview with Empire, Brooker said he tried using AI to write an episode of the show. He explains that, when writing a new episode, he curiously toyed with ChatGPT and typed "Black Mirror episode" to see what would come up. The series' creator goes on to say that the result from the experiment was an episode that, at first glance, looks plausible and even interesting. However, upon further reflection, it turns out to be bland and unoriginal. Because AI compromises all data of an already-existing topic on the internet, Brooker realized that the technology-generated episode was simply a recollection of previous work he had created. "If you dig a bit more deeply you go, 'oh there's not actually any real original thought here," Brooker said.
However, the experience did provide him with an important lesson. As any Black Mirror episode would conclude, the issue is not the technology but rather the hands that lay on it and the way humans operate it. The writer even reflects that the experience taught him what not to do in the future and further encouraged him to break his own rules and expand the potential subject the show could cover. "There's no point in having an anthology show if you can't break your own rules," Brooker said, "just a sort of nice, cold glass of water in the face."
The move further away from AI comes as more writers, actors, and directors renounce using this type of technology amid the WGA and potential SAG-AFTRA strikes, which seek to prevent studios from using artificial intelligence to write scripts and create new shows or films. It should not come as a surprise that the creator of Black Mirror spoke about the ineffectiveness of this tool. After all, the Netflix series is the king of technology uneasiness.
Black Mirror season 6 will be released on Netflix on June 15, 2023.
Source: Empire