Rumors are running rampant online that Matt and Ross Duffer used OpenAI’s ChatGPT when producing the last season of “Stranger Things” after fans zoomed on a still from a behind-the-scenes documentary that appears to show that one of the brothers had the AI chatbot open while working on the script.
“WTF man, now we know why season 5 sucked,” wrote one upset fan of the show on X-formerly-Twitter in response.
Martina Radwan, director of the documentary “One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5,” told The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview that she didn’t witness anybody using ChatGPT in the tv show writer’s room.
“No, of course not,” she said. “I witnessed creative exchanges. I witnessed conversation.”
Of course, a person making a hagiographic documentary about the production of the show for Netflix probably isn’t the world’s most neutral source. And she doesn’t quite shut the door on its use, either.
“But to me it’s like, doesn’t everybody have it open, to just do quick research?” she caveated in her hard-to-follow answer to the question.
Nonetheless, the online controversy and the interview show that many people who watch original entertainment don’t want a whiff of AI around their favorite movies or shows, though some production companies have already made forays into its use, most prominently in “de-aging” actors.
Controversies have erupted online when AI use has been unearthed, including its use in tweaking actor Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent in the movie “The Brutalist” and for generating promotional posters for director Alex Garland’s movie “Civil War.”
Viewers and industry experts should expect more of these flashpoints to erupt as Hollywood bigwigs debate whether to use AI.
Some are stridently against the tech — director Guillermo del Toro said he would rather die than use it — but entertainment giants are rapidly jumping on board. Disney, for instance, recently signed a $1 billion licensing deal with OpenAI, which will allow users to play with Disney-owned characters in OpenAI’s video generator Sora.
The debate is far from over, though. Big tech has already eaten journalism’s lunch — and perhaps Hollywood is next on the menu.
More on entertainment: OpenAI Says It’s Making a Full Hollywood Movie Using AI
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