Charlie Brooker, creator of the dystopian Netflix series Black Mirror, has said that the AI advances explored in episode Joan Is Awful could be used in a “frankly terrifying way”.
Starring Schitt’s Creek actress Annie Murphy as Joan and Salma Hayek as TV Joan, the series six episode looks at AI-generated imagery, copyright and potential human rights violations.
Talking about Joan Is Awful and the discussion around AI, Brooker told the PA news agency: “We wrapped it last October, something like that and it’s now super timely, I think because of a lot of the conversation that’s going on around AI-generated imagery and entertainment and people’s rights to their own image and that sort of thing.
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“It feels super timely and again, there’s all sorts of ways that you can see that kind of technology being used in a frankly, terrifying way.
“Although that’s not quite what we explore. It’s existentially terrifying, but also funny in the episode.”
Season six of Black Mirror is comprised of five hour-long episodes and debuted globally on Netflix on Thursday.
Joan Is Awful centres around Murphy’s character Joan who finds out that her life has been replicated on screen by streaming platform Streamberry.
Brooker, 52, previously mentioned that he had tried to create Black Mirror episodes with AI tool ChatGPT, telling Empire Magazine that he thought there was “not actually any real original thought” there.
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Discussing his hopes for how this season of Black Mirror will be received, Brooker said: “Hopefully this season feels like Black Mirror but is also different as well at the same time and hopefully that’s the thing that keeps it fresh and unpredictable.
“I can never predict what the reaction is going to be. I’m fascinated by how people will react to it.”
Talking about which episodes he is most excited for people to watch, Brooker added: “Definitely Joan, Beyond The Sea as well, because it’s one foot in one camp and one in another in that it’s very traditionally Black Mirror and also is a retro-futuristic story. And then something like Demon, which is almost like a Hammer Horror movie or something like that.
“It’s very, very British, very, sort of specifically British, and it is and isn’t Black Mirror at the same time.”
Famous faces to appear in season six of Black Mirror include Aaron Paul, Kate Mara, Rob Delaney, Michael Cera, John Hannah, Josh Hartnett and Zazie Beetz.