Outgoing Doctor Who boss Russell T Davies has made his feelings clear after the BBC’s new director general appeared to praise an AI-generated episode of the long-running sci-fi show.
During an interview on BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show, Russell was asked about Matt Brittin’s claim last month that “somebody” had sent him “a 50-minute episode of Doctor Who that was AI-generated the other day” that was “pretty good”.
“I mean, it’s not going to replace humans,” he quickly clarified. “So, everyone’s a creator.”
Unsurprisingly given the ongoing debates around AI usage in the entertainment industry, these comments were met with a widespread backlash, with the BBC exec later admitting he’d landed himself “in trouble” for the comments, stating: “I was just trying to make the point: Look at the pace of change and what this stuff can do.
“I want to be really clear: Humans are leading, and I believe in human creativity, enhanced by whatever tools.”
Sharing his view on Radio 4, Russell suggested: “That’s a clumsy thing to say in an industry where he’s got writers and artists and it specifically affects people, they’re the first to take the blow.”
Claiming the director general “hasn’t worked in television for that long and might not be so fruity with an opinion in future”, the Tip Toe creator quipped: “My inbox went, ‘ping ping ping ping ping’, so God knows what his was like.”
Russell announced his departure from Doctor Who after two seasons back at the helm earlier this year, coinciding with the news the show was being put out to creative tender by the BBC.
This led to the cancellation of a planned Christmas special, which the Bafta winner has elaborated on more in his new memoir The Queerest Of Folk, which centres around his career in TV.
