New ‘Black Mirror’ Season Begins by Tackling Actors’ Anxiety About AI

71st Primetime Emmy Awards - Photo Room – Los Angeles, California, US, September 22, 2019 - Annabel Jones, Charlie Brooker and Russel McLean pose backstage with their Outstanding Television Movie award for Bandersnatch (Black Mirror). REUTERS/Monica Almeida/File Photo
71st Primetime Emmy Awards - Photo Room – Los Angeles, California, US, September 22, 2019 - Annabel Jones, Charlie Brooker and Russel McLean pose backstage with their Outstanding Television Movie award for Bandersnatch (Black Mirror). REUTERS/Monica Almeida/File Photo
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New ‘Black Mirror’ Season Begins by Tackling Actors’ Anxiety About AI

71st Primetime Emmy Awards - Photo Room – Los Angeles, California, US, September 22, 2019 - Annabel Jones, Charlie Brooker and Russel McLean pose backstage with their Outstanding Television Movie award for Bandersnatch (Black Mirror). REUTERS/Monica Almeida/File Photo
71st Primetime Emmy Awards - Photo Room – Los Angeles, California, US, September 22, 2019 - Annabel Jones, Charlie Brooker and Russel McLean pose backstage with their Outstanding Television Movie award for Bandersnatch (Black Mirror). REUTERS/Monica Almeida/File Photo

In the new season of Netflix Inc's (NFLX.O) sci-fi show "Black Mirror," an office manager finds that a streaming service is replaying her life using an avatar of Salma Hayek.

Hayek, in the episode released on Thursday, has sold her digital image to Hollywood for use in programming created with artificial intelligence (AI).

The story highlights real-world concerns of actors and writers, said "Schitt's Creek" star Annie Murphy, who plays the office manager. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike in early May, partly over concerns that studios would start using generative AI, instead of humans, to write scripts.

"I hope it shines a light on what they’re fighting for and why they’re fighting for it," Murphy said in an interview, Reuters reported.

"It’s not just writers being whiney. It’s them saying ‘Can we not be replaced by computers?’ and that’s such a scary thing for human beings to have to ask," she added.

Actors became concerned after realistic-looking "deepfakes" began circulating online of stars such as Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves and Hayek. Members of the SAG-AFTRA actors union are seeking protections on how their images are used in their negotiations with Hollywood studios.

"As much as I really want people to have a good laugh and enjoy our shockingly lighthearted episode when it comes to 'Black Mirror,' I do hope that it sparks proper conversation, or many conversations, about the really terrible repercussions that AI can have if it goes too far off the rails," Murphy said.

Murphy said she and Hayek discussed the issue during filming of "Black Mirror."

"Her image has been used in so many terrible and disrespectful ways, so we did have conversations about that," Murphy said.



Brian Wilson's Top Five Beach Boys Songs

Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
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Brian Wilson's Top Five Beach Boys Songs

Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

From the carefree sound of California surf music to the sophistication of later darker works, here are five of the top hits penned by influential Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson.

'Surfin' USA' (1963)

"Surfin' USA" was the Beach Boys' first global hit, taken from their eponymous debut album. A youthful ode to sea, sun and girls, it became an anthem for the West Coast and beyond.

It demonstrated Brian Wilson's increasing songwriting prowess as well as the band's unique vocal sound achieved thanks to double tracking.

"We'll all be gone for the summer/ We're on safari to stay/ Tell the teacher we're surfin'/ Surfin' USA," it rang out.

Wilson intentionally set his lyrics to the music of "Sweet Little Sixteen," by Chuck Berry, leading Berry to take legal action.

'California Girls' (1965)

On the big hit of the summer of 1965, Wilson's cousin Mike Love burst into song to celebrate the sun-tanned women of California.

"I wish they all could be California girls," the band members sang in seemless harmony.

It was also the first song written by Wilson under the influence of LSD, "which could explain why the accompaniment seems to move in a slow, steady daze at odds with the song's bright, major-key melody," Rolling Stone magazine wrote.

'God Only Knows' (1966)

It took Wilson just 45 minutes to write "God Only Knows," the legendary eighth track on the album "Pet Sounds" which has gone down as one of the greatest love songs ever.

Sung by brother Carl Wilson, Brian's rival Paul McCartney declared it to be his favorite song of all time and said it reduced him to tears.

But the record company and other members of the group were wary at the new turn in style.

'Good Vibrations'(1966)

"Good Vibrations" was a massive commercial success, selling one million copies in the United States and topping charts there and in several other countries including the UK.

At the time the most expensive single ever made, the "pocket symphony" was recorded in four different studios, consumed over 90 hours of tape and included a complexity of keys, textures, moods and instrumentation.

The song was a far cry from the group's surf-and-sun origins and the enormity of the task brought Wilson to the brink. He was unable to go on and complete the album "Smile," of which the song was to have been the centerpiece.

- 'Til I die' (1971) -

On side B of the album "Surf's Up,'Til I die" was composed in 1969 by a depressed Wilson worn down by mental illness and addiction.

He wrote in his 1991 autobiography that it was perhaps the most personal song he had written for the Beach Boys.