ChatGPT was used to write a Black Mirror episode, but it was 'SH*T', confirms Charlie Brooker

Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker has confirmed that he attempted to use ChatGPT to write an episode of Black Mirror, but the result proved, well, not good enough.

The series started on Channel Four before eventually moving to Netflix. It uses technology as a narrative tool to tell stories usually involving a dystopian element.

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The sixth series of Black Mirror was released on Netflix in June, with Brooker having written every single episode, with the sixth written alongside Bisha K. Ali.

Artificial Intelligence bot ChatGPT might have had a writing credit, too, if it wasn't "sh*t.".

“I’ve toyed around with ChatGPT a bit," Brooker told Empire.

"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 sh*t. 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.'"

What ChatGPT did help Brooker do was actually to throw out his own formula that has been used for Black Mirror episodes in the past in order to keep things fresh.

“I was aware that I had written lots of episodes where someone goes 'Oh, I was inside a computer the whole time!'", continued.

"So I thought, 'I’m just going to chuck out any sense of what I think a Black Mirror episode is.' There’s no point in having an anthology show if you can’t break your own rules. Just a sort of nice, cold glass of water in the face.”

Black Mirror series 6 features names like Aaron Paul, Kate Mara, Josh Hartnett, Annie Murphy, Salma Hayek, Michael Cera, Rory Culkin, Zazie Beetz and Anjana Vasan.