I’ve had a really bad suspicion lately. Namely, that serial television is no longer man-made, but has long come from a special AI adaptation. Three examples: The “Soko” flood on ZDF, the murderer always confesses his terrible deed three minutes before “today at 7 p.m. so that the advertising for intestinal solvents and problems falling asleep can start on time. It follows today. In the first episode, the duckweed episodes are now successful when the water police plow through the waters across Germany. And at RTL no one knows for a long time whether “Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten” is running in a permanent repeat loop or whether new episodes are still being presented.
TV fiction awaits
Of course, the creators will now react indignantly. All hand made in terms of books, production and broadcasting. That seems hardly believable, but in our philanthropy we want to believe that artificial intelligence has not yet found its way into the manageably original television fiction.
But the audience will see it. Twitch has the series Nothing, Forever, which is at best a parody but actually an adaptation of the 1990s sitcom Seinfeld. An AI uses all the original episodes for its own script. Plot, gags, characters were not created by humans. And that’s not all: The makers of Mismatch Media explain that the camera settings and the figures are also controlled by “generative algorithms”. Even the audience chat was looted. The result comes very close to the original, little or nothing happens, the characters talk about everyday trifles, the level of wit produces jokes like: “Have you heard about the restaurant on the moon? Great food but no atmosphere.” The title honestly admits: “Nothing Forever”.
Joachim Huber is torn by the possibilities of AI for television fiction.
Bet that AI can also do fiction like “Soko”, “Wapo” and “GZSZ”? Can this TV really get any worse if it becomes Smoothie TV? Once the audience has gotten used to it, higher tasks await: humor on German television. I’m convinced that a cracker like Mario Barth would also work as AI Maria Barth or that Atze Schröder would do no harm if Helge Schneider were properly mixed in. German television humor needs all the help it can get.
Of course there is a risk, in the end AI is much less demanding than the audience. But am I ready to enter. In case of displeasure, I send my AI to stare. Let’s see how she/he/it reacts.
I have been working in the news industry for over 10 years now and I have worked for some of the biggest news websites in the world. My focus has always been on entertainment news, but I also cover a range of other topics. I am currently an author at Global happenings and I love writing about all things pop-culture related.
