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“The inspiration was the feeling that we all had about the future and where we were all moving with AI,” said Hernandez, who notes the project came about before ChatGPT and Open AI made artificial intelligence a subject of everyday conversations. When originating, the duo were thinking about the moral quandaries brought about by everyday social media use across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
“The idea [came from] taking something that was really worrying us. [We were] saying, ‘Oh my God, I am too reliant on technology. But at the same time, I really like it and need it and it is sort of connecting me to people.'” added Lindelof. “How do we start to reconcile this anxiety through a fun lens?”
Hernandez talked about writing for an AI character, the eponymous Mrs. Davis. The character would be the antithesis of HAL, cinema’s best-known AI, as seen inwhen portrayed as a sinister red light. Says Hernandez, “We wanted to take a lighter touch.” Lindeloff adds that AI is now familiar to audiences, “We keep anthropomorphizing AI — we are calling it Alexa and Siri.”
The panel discussion turned toward AI’s potential application in Hollywood. When asked if they could see if AI could be incorporated in the writers room, Lindelof responded, “For sure. My guess is, it starts as a lark. Fundamentally, no writer that I am aware of wants to be replaced by generative artificial intelligence. But at the same time, if you think of it more as a tool, you can have a lot of fun with it if it bolsters the process.