AI vs writers: Can ChatGPT create the next Succession? Or Breaking Bad?

With writers' strike raging on in Hollywood, the notion of artificial intelligence taking over the screenwriting duties is terrifying for both writers of TV and film, and the audiences. One of the points of contention between WGA, or Writers Guild of America, and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), was AI. WGA members wish to limit the use of tools like ChatGPT in the screenwriting process, but Hollywood studios, suffering from economic losses in the streaming era and a post-pandemic world where the theatrical business is yet to fully recover, believe otherwise. Sure enough large language models or LLMs like ChatGPT have proven ridiculously useful in generating text. It can write thousands of words in a matter of seconds, which is beyond us.

However, judging by the quality of ChatGPT's writing, which is without any flavour or personality (an obvious reason for that) and reads like a particularly dull Wikipedia entry, professional writers may not have any particular cause to worry about, at the moment anyway.

But what if ChatGPT in a dystopic future did replace writers and wrote TV and film scripts? What would our entertainment look like?

Also Read:Explained | Hollywood strike - What the writers want

Succession in space

We asked the large language model to write a synopsis of HBO's Successionif it were set in space. Here's what it came up with:

"Succession in Space is a science fiction drama series that follows the Roy family, a wealthy and powerful family who own a space exploration and mining company called Royco. The show is set in a distant future where humanity has colonised multiple planets and galaxies, and space travel and colonisation have become the norm. The series centres around the patriarch of the family, Logan Roy, a ruthless and ambitious business tycoon who is the founder and CEO of Royco. Logan is getting old and is facing health issues, which prompts him to start thinking about his succession plan. He has four children: Kendall, Shiv, Roman, and Connor, who all have different personalities and ambitions. As Logan's health deteriorates, tensions rise, and the siblings start to fight for power, control, and the family legacy."

Not very imaginative on ChatGPT's part. It did, in fairness, follow my prompt to the letter. This is Succession in space, indeed. And not very interesting. The LLM just took tired tropes from sci-fi and applied them to the show's main plot.

Also Read:Hollywood writers vs artificial intelligence: How their strike is also a fight against AI

Breaking Bad in India?

Next, I asked ChatGPT to reimagine Breaking Bad in India. It came up with:

"Breaking Bad: Mumbai show follows the story of Walter White, a struggling high school chemistry teacher who turns to making and selling methamphetamine to secure his family's future after being diagnosed with lung cancer. In this version of the story, Walter White is reimagined as Vikram Verma, a chemistry professor at a prestigious Mumbai university. Vikram is a talented chemist, but his life takes a turn when he is diagnosed with cancer and realises that he cannot afford the expensive treatments that could save his life. Desperate to provide for his family, Vikram turns to his former student and small-time drug dealer, Rohit, to help him start cooking and selling crystal meth. Rohit is a young, ambitious man with big dreams of becoming a major player in the drug trade, and he sees Vikram's expertise as the key to his success. Together, Vikram and Rohit embark on a dangerous journey, navigating the dangerous underworld of Mumbai's drug trade and dealing with ruthless gangsters, corrupt police officers, and rival drug dealers. Along the way, they must also contend with the disapproval of their families and loved ones, who are unaware of their illegal activities. As Vikram becomes more deeply involved in the drug trade, he begins to transform from a mild-mannered professor to a ruthless drug lord, willing to do whatever it takes to protect his territory and his family."

Again, this is without a single hint of imagination. ChatGPT does what the prompt tells you, but fails to do anything remotely approaching interesting beyond what the fresh.

For now, at least, ChatGPT or AI, in general, does not pose a threat to any writer worth his or her salt. Of course, money-minded studios might not see it that way, and we have seen content in the past that feels like an algorithm wrote it.

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