Soap operas are well-oiled machines even without the presence of machine learning, but now fears abound that generative AI tools could replace human screenwriters
Sharon and Phil in EastEnders. All eyes are on the soap opera, but not in a good way. Photograph: Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron/ BBC ? I’m tempted, for the purposes of freeing up my time for what AI enthusiasts would call “more value-added work” just to type the word “no”, then copy and paste it repeatedly for the remainder of my allotted column space, perhaps with a Logan Roy-style “f**k off” as a finishing flourish.
In my own more prosaic job, I’ll be honest, the Fear of Being Replaced is frequently drowned out by the Hope of Being Replaced. Come, friendly robots, etc. But it seems bizarre to me that essentially the same people who are the source of everything that has ever brought me joy — musicians, actors, artists, writers of all kinds — are now standing in the path of an AI wrecking ball.
The ensuing headlines went big on the soap angle, which made sense on one level, and not just because some soaps could do with an AI tool purely to keep track of all the serial killers operating in their area’s daytime soap Doctors, Hawes explained that an AI tool could be asked to write and generate a scene in which an A&E doctor flirts with a colleague while a patient is dying on the table. The result “may not be as polished” as human efforts, but “that is how close we’re getting”.
After years of falling audience ratings, however, the UK soaps do not carry the same weight with TV bosses that they once did. Doctors, for instance, was axed by the BBC last October, with the final episodes due to air this December. Channel 4′s Hollyoaks has been cut from five episodes a week to three from September. All eyes are on EastEnders, but not in a good way.
Even if it turns out the principle of human authorship elicits more respect elsewhere, there is bound to be a spillover effect. Soap operas, as well as being enjoyed in their own right, serve as training grounds for the wider audiovisual industry. The first “AI soap” devised by some bright spark with an OpenAI licence risks setting in motion a process of deskilling that is never reversed.
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