An Episode of ‘Black Mirror’ Predicted the Ai Wars in Hollywood


The new season of Netflix’s popular sci-fi show Black Mirror seems to have again predicted the future. The show is known for being accurate about how it shows the future.

In the first episode of Black Mirror, called “Joan Is Awful,” a tech company uses deepfake technology to turn a woman’s life into a soap opera. The plot of that show is very similar to the problems that Hollywood actors and writers are having right now.

While the actors’ strike was still going on, SAG-AFTRA head Fran Drescher talked about the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ (AMPTP) idea for a dystopian AI.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who is in charge of negotiations for SAG-AFTRA, said that one part of the proposal was especially scary: background actors would be scanned and paid for one day’s work, but the studio would own their digital likenesses and have the right to use them forever, without their permission or any other payment.

As Drescher talked about her problems, the scary Black Mirror episode and what it meant in real life became clearer.

Because of this, Black Mirror’s success on streaming services went through the roof, highlighting the disturbing link between the show’s fictional scenarios and the scary truth.