If you thought the warnings about AI taking over the creative arts were overblown, this disturbing story will absolutely make you think again: A smart fridge has been hired onto the writing staff of Abbott Elementary.
Yikes. Is this the beginning of the end for screenwriting as a profession?
Earlier this morning, ABC announced that the first ever Samsung 4-Door Flex™ smart refrigerator with active WGA membership status is joining the writers’ room for the next season of beloved mockumentary sitcom Abbott Elementary. Sources within Abbott’s production office say writers only learned of the Samsung fridge’s hiring when they arrived at work and found it placed on top of a chair in the writers’ room. By the time the staff reported to their daily meeting, the fridge was already generating scripts on its touchscreen display at a rate of 50 scripts per minute, all of which featured storylines centered around groceries, food expiration dates, and the amount of milk remaining in Abbott Elementary’s teacher lounge. Dismissing staff objections to the fridge’s hiring, executive producers for the show insisted Abbott’s human writers either respect and include their new creative collaborator or be fired for discrimination.
According to ABC, the smart fridge experienced several hiccups during its first day on staff, largely due to an error in its coding that made it think Abbott Elementary was set inside a refrigerator rather than a public school in Philadelphia. The fridge’s programming also had to be altered to reflect typical writers’ room behavior. For example: to indicate laughter at a fellow staffer’s joke idea, the fridge dispenses ice onto the floor. Further, to argue against another writers’ story idea, the smart fridge automatically places an Instacart order for a single mushroom.
Wow. Is this the future of Hollywood? Only time will tell if Abbott Elementary’s human staff members can compete with a Bluetooth-enabled refrigerator, but either way, it looks like artificial intelligence’s threat to creative professionals is real, and escalating quickly!
