‘The disruption is already happening!’ Is AI about to ruin your favourite TV show?

It won't be long till everything from Drag Race to Keeping Up With the Kardashians could be written without humans - and you might be able to write yourself as the hero of a new show. But will robot TV ever be up to snuff?

Justine Bateman won't name names, but a TV showrunner friend once came to her with a dilemma: their show's team was well into filming its second season when a network executive had an idea. A character in the pilot hadn't tested well with audiences, so they were just going to go in, use a little AI, and swap in someone else.

The showrunner - and Bateman, an actor and director - were understandably incensed. When you change the beginning of something, you change the creative trajectory," says Bateman. There's going to be whiplash for the viewer when they get to episode three or four because what was set up in the pilot got messed with and now doesn't make sense." Using AI might have seemed like a simple solution to the executive, but to the showrunner, it was catastrophic.