The BBC's new director general has described a 50-minute AI-generated episode of Doctor Who as «pretty good,» and suggested the technology now allows content to be created «at the standard of a Hollywood studio.» Matt Brittin made the remarks this week at the Royal Television Society conference in London, according to Variety.
Brittin took over as head of the British broadcaster in May after nearly two decades at Google, where he rose to UK managing director. He now faces the difficult task of making further deep cuts to the corporation's spending while continuing to produce world-class programming, including its flagship science-fiction series.
Doctor Who is currently on hiatus after a turbulent few years. Fans have largely agreed the show declined in quality, particularly across the past two seasons starring Ncuti Gatwa, which also marked the return of Russell T Davies as showrunner. That era ended abruptly after just two seasons when co-funding partner Disney dropped the series, prompting Gatwa's departure in a reshot ending. A promised one-off Christmas special intended to tie up remaining plotlines was later scrapped as well, with Davies and production company Bad Wolf also exiting.
The BBC has now begun searching for a fresh production house to take on the show, a process it wants to result in new episodes arriving in either 2028 or 2029.
«Somebody sent me a 50-minute episode of Doctor Who that was AI-generated the other day,» Brittin said. «It's pretty good. I mean, it's not going to replace humans, and we'll come on to that.» He added: «So everyone's a creator. Not all the creativity is bad. Everyone's got the ability in their hands — or six billion people have — to create content at the standard of a Hollywood studio.»
Brittin did not name the AI project he watched, but it is almost certainly the 50-minute first episode of the fan-made project The Unmade Season, which presents an AI-made continuation of the series. The show picks up with a new incarnation of the Doctor regenerating from David Tennant's 14th Doctor, played by a Scottish-sounding AI actor. Scenes feature various AI oddities while incorporating familiar Doctor Who monsters such as the Slitheen and the Ood.
The project's quality has been described as almost photorealistic but narratively flawed, and not very good overall. For a Doctor Who fan, it is particularly odd to hear the head of the BBC offering any praise to content, even non-commercial fan content, that appears to have been generated by regurgitating the BBC's own copyrighted episodes.
Brittin's comments come as the broadcaster balances tight budgets against the pressure to keep producing premium programming. While the technology may be advancing quickly, the question of how AI-generated material fits with the BBC's own creative output and intellectual property remains unresolved. For now, the corporation's immediate focus is finding a new partner to bring the Doctor back to screens later this decade.