BBC exterminates AI experiments used to promote Doctor Who
- Reference: 1711517405
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/03/27/bbc_ends_doctor_who_ai_experiments/
- Source link:
The broadcaster announced its intention to use AI to create some promos in early March, a move that earned it a thorough pasting from fans – including the folks behind the [1]Doctor Who Companion website, which declared itself "absolutely disgusted." And doubly so, after the BBC took down the page on which it announced its intentions.
Thankfully the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has [2]preserved that page. It originally featured an article by David Housden, head of media inventory: digital, who revealed the following.
We will be creating human-written marketing copy for a Doctor Who push notification, email subject line and in the promotional rail on BBC Search – then we will be using generative AI to suggest copy variations which are then reviewed and approved by our marketing team before being shown to the audience. Their success will be measured by click-rates, open-rates, and post-impression conversion-rates across each channel.
Housden explained that the BBC decided to use Doctor Who for its very first generative AI marketing experiments because the venerable franchise "is a joint content priority for both BBC Public Service UK and BBC Studios marketing teams."
Moreover: "There's a rich variety of content in the Whoniverse collection on iPlayer to test and learn with, and Doctor Who thematically lends itself to AI which is a bonus."
[3]
It was not a bonus.
[4]
[5]
Unknown numbers of Whovians complained, leading the BBC to [6]announce it had ended the experiment.
"We received complaints about reports that the BBC is exploring generative AI in Doctor Who promotion," the announcement concedes.
[7]Surface Duo crashes the party as Doctor Who celebrates 60th birthday
[8]Playmobil crosses the final frontier with enormous, metre-long Enterprise playset
[9]BBC picks SiFive RISC-V chip for Doctor Who programming-for-kids kit – with Jodie Whittaker narrating
[10]Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42
The BBC responded to those complaints as follows:
As part of a small trial, marketing teams used generative AI technology to help draft some text for two promotional emails and mobile notifications to highlight Doctor Who programming available on the BBC.
We followed all BBC editorial compliance processes and the final text was verified and signed-off by a member of the marketing team before it was sent. We have no plans to do this again to promote Doctor Who.
That wasn't enough for the folks at Doctor Who Companion, who don't want the BBC to use AI for any promotions, for any shows – ever .
And, as the site notes, Doctor Who himself has triumphed in plenty of battles against AI. The Doctor Who [11]Wiki chronicles several similar battles across the extended Whoniverse of TV, books, and comics.
[12]
As The Register has often wearily noted, in 2024 it's almost impossible to escape hype about AI's inevitable ascent.
Now we have finally found a foe capable of defeating it: irate Whovians. ®
Bootnote: Using AI to create images for this story was too obvious a ploy to resist, as was employing it to make images that reflect the "I love Doctor Who, especially when he fights the Alien with a lightsaber" genre of deliberate nerd malapropism.
[13]
Your correspondent's current AI of choice, [14]Leonardo , produced this beauty in response to the prompt "William Shatner dressed as Captain Kirk and brandishing a Doctor Who sonic screwdriver."
[15]
Captain Kirk with a sonic screwdriver – Click to enlarge
When we used the prompt "Doctor Who dressed in a Starfleet uniform" the AI produced the following.
[16]
Doctor Who in a Starfleet uniform – Click to enlarge
I reckon that's a pretty handy mashup of Starfleet style and the wardrobe worn by the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi.
But the image we decided to run with was generated with the prompt "Doctor Who fixing R2D2 with a sonic screwdriver."
Here it is, in all its magnificent wrongness.
[17]
Doctor Who fixing R2D2 with a sonic screwdriver – Click to enlarge
Enjoy!
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://thedoctorwhocompanion.com/2024/03/11/the-bbc-to-use-ai-to-publicise-doctor-who-and-were-absolutely-disgusted/
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20240307235529/https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/articles/2024/bbc-marketing-generative-ai-doctor-who-promotion
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZgP8UE8coU64fWUtzv539QAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZgP8UE8coU64fWUtzv539QAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZgP8UE8coU64fWUtzv539QAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaint/doctor-who-0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/25/surface_duo_crashes_the_party/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/18/playmobil_star_trek/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/19/bbc_doctor_who_sifive/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/09/hhgttg_42/
[11] https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Artificial_intelligence
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZgP8UE8coU64fWUtzv539QAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZgP8UE8coU64fWUtzv539QAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://leonardo.ai/
[15] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/03/27/leonardo_ai_shatner_sonic_screwdriver.jpg
[16] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/03/27/leonardo_ai_doctor_who_starfleet_uniform.jpg
[17] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/03/27/leonardo_ai.jpg
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: You will be upgraded, resistance is futile
I thought Cybermen had human brains as the only remaining vestige of human bodies? Hence the emotion and pain dampening gadget on their front. There was an episode or two around humans being herded into Battersea power station to have their heads chopped and brains inserted into the mechanical bodies.
Re: You will be upgraded, resistance is futile
You are both right.
It was not the most canon-caring story line.
I suggest trying "Ensign Two: The Wrath of Sue"[1] for your Doctor Trek / Star Who reading pleasure.
[1] hmm, the server is having trouble today, so not a good idea to give the easy-to-click URL right now :-(
Re: You will be upgraded, resistance is futile
I'd go further and suggest reading three parts of the Mary Sue comic. Mary Sue Must Die is a great send-up of the concept, followed by the next two stories taking it seriously (and also being very good).
Apologies to Jim Croce
"You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't let Ai write poo
You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Who”
Re: Apologies to Jim Croce
I think we're a bit past worrying about messing with Who, considering what Chibnall did to it.
Re: I think we're a bit past worrying about messing with Who,
And if not, just take a few deep breaths, and escape to the all classic Dr Who's on iplayer... :-)
Currently I am about mid-Pertwee....
Re: Apologies to Jim Croce
I didn't think much of the Christmas reboot. Doctor Who should lead by being itself rather than listening to the luvvies on the media pages, of which the Grauniad is probably the worst example: should never have left Manchester.
FFS
He's The Doctor not Doctor Who.
Re: FFS
Yep. It's going to annoy some firebronies for sure.
Re: He's The Doctor not Doctor Who.
So who is the title character?
Re: He's The Doctor not Doctor Who.
Zelda.
Re: He's The Doctor not Doctor Who.
Who's on first base?
Re: He's The Doctor not Doctor Who.
No, Who's on second. Guess Who's on first.
Re: He's The Doctor not Doctor Who.
Who’s on stage?
Re: He's The Doctor not Doctor Who.
So who is the title character?
Yes.
Re: FFS
Yes and no.
The season one credits list William Hartnell's character as Doctor Who.
Capt Kirk with sonic
Stewart Lee has let himself go.
Re: Capt Kirk with sonic
Nice crossover comment.
Re: Capt Kirk with sonic
I was thinking more that he's morphing into [1]Rick Astley ...
[1] https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=78EJQIf3hhme7GxT
Re: Capt Kirk with sonic
Anon,
If I click on your Rick Astley link and it doesn't lead to William Shatner "singing" 'Never Gonna Give You Up' on the Youtubes, I'm going to be sorely disappointed.
Maybe that could be even "better" than his interpretation of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'?
AI Doctor
OK, he has two hearts, but he doesn't have six fingers on each hand.
Been watching this mildly entertaining drivel since 1963.
Fantasy
I don’t understand its appeal, why the dude is described as a doctor, a doctor of what? Magical thinking?
Re: Fantasy
You know that thing you like but doesn't give me any pleasure?
Well, I just took the trouble to come here to tell you it sucks, so nyaah!
Gosh, I feel so proud and manly now. Cower at the sound of my self-chosen nickname.
Actually....
Capaldi really does look like a Vulcan - more Spock than Spock ;) Although he might have trouble with the traditional deadpan Vulcan delivery but as an uninhibited Vulcan reprising his "In the Thick of It", Caledonian Mafia role might liven up the franchise. :)
Looks like Matt Smith messing with r2d2 and I thought it was quite clever AI grayed his hair and generally aged him until I realized it probably lifted the images from "The Time of the Doctor" during the latter part of the siege of Trenzalore.
The Doctor's two enduring adversaries, dalek and cybermen, weren't AI but basically cyborgs which demonstrates that, while machines can be really nasty, it takes biological intelligence to take it up to another level for evil. :)
Guessing the prompt
Old Shatner with tube of toothpaste? Peter Capaldi with Anson Mount hair?
R2D2 has a fairly consistent look and style but the Doctor has a selection of faces giving Leonardo some difficulty latching on to a specfic one.
Spambots have been able to produce content faster than humans can delete it since the '90s. Perhaps one day AI will be able to sift through the dross an pick out a few good stories for me. Targeted ads convince me it will not happen any time soon.
Exterminate!
Exterminate! Exterminate!
sorry...
R2D2 appears to have the annedroid's hair. Meanwhile the starfleet doctor seems to be a mash-up of Capaldi and Tennant with Christopher Eccleston's ears.
Doctor Who replaces top half of Dalek with top half of R2D2, upgrading both at the same time.
I don't know, maybe they should have gone through with it. Doctor Who has sucked in recent years, sucky AI marketing would have pretty much in line with expectations.
Great pics
I tried Leonardo after an article here on El Reg mentioned it. It's fun to fool around with, but apparently asking Leonardo to put Star Destroyers in the sky above Earth is still subject to some sort of copyright (because I fail to see how it can be a lack of reference material) - the spaceships are triangular, but Star Destroyers they ain't.
That said, I understand - and subscribe to - the notion that AI-generated blurbs on shows published by the BBC should never happen.
Unfortunately, I am also aware that this is reality, and in our current reality, there is nothing AI will not be applied to, whether successful or not.
Live with the times . . .
Re: Great pics
Surely marketing blurb created by text and picture generating algorithms from IP that you own yourself is a perfectly legitimate use of the technology? It's putting a few very low level marketing copywriters out of a job, assuming it works - but I'm not sure it's much of a threat to anything.
I'm a lot more impressed by the image-generating tech than the text stuff - although I strongly suspect there's a lot of selection bias. People generate a bunch of images and only show the best ones. But nonetheless that seems technically a lot harder than summarising text.
::sigh:: is there nothing Doctor Who fans won't complain about? I've watched and generally enjoyed the show since Pertwee, and could reasonably have been described as a Who nerd in my teens (in fact, I was), but fans' tendency to complain really gets on my wick.
Of all the things you could do with AI, this seems like such a trivial use as to be insignificant. As long as the description is accurate, what does it matter how it was created??
Sadly
Sadly like every other technological advancement it won't be used to make normal peoples lives better it will only be used to increase returns to major shareholders and let beancounters cut budgets where there are no shares.
Could be worse...
They might start making [1]dodgy adverts featuring daleks
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWqoB6Ujj80
You will be upgraded, resistance is futile
Funny enough, there legitimately was a "Who Trek" crossover comic at one point, titled Assimilation² , revolving around a cross-dimensional teamup between the Borg and the Cybermen... eventually going very, very wrongly for the former (Cybermen have no organic matter to be Borgificated, but Cyberization works just fine on the Borg). So the Doctor has, canonically, been on a Starfleet vessel at one point.