BBC's AI-powered Christie course stirs ethical storm in writing world

BBC's AI revival of Agatha Christie to teach crime writing has sparked ethical alarm - but is it really an abomination?

Here’s the offer: “Want to write the perfect crime story? In this once-in-a-lifetime course — created in collaboration with Agatha Christie’s family and built entirely on her own words about the craft — let the Queen of Crime Fiction herself show you how”. Wanna apply? Thanks to a new AI-assisted course from BBC Maestro (priced at £79), aspiring crime writers can now learn the craft directly from the queen of whodunnits herself, or at least from a convincingly reimagined version of her.

 

The course, titled Agatha Christie: Writing, brings Christie’s storytelling insights to life through a digitally reconstructed version of the author, portrayed by actress Vivien Keene. Her likeness and voice have been enhanced using Artificial Intelligence (AI) trained on archival footage, old interviews, and letters written by the author of Death on the Nile. The result is an interactive learning experience where Madam Christie appears to personally guide budding writers through the mechanics of constructing a good mystery.

 

But first an interesting aside. Keene got the role of Christie’s body double after a casting process that started with a “biometrics test” to see if her face was the right shape, and most of her performance involved trying to sit as still as possible. She revealed that she had to perform as Christie while barely moving her face and staring down the camera, as Christie was never filmed from the side!

 

This AI project has been overseen by Christie’s great-grandson James Prichard. BBC Studios emphasises that all the teaching materials of the course are sourced from original documents, and not written or recreated by AI. The curriculum, spread across 11 video lessons and 12 exercises, delves into the nuts and bolts of detective fiction, covering character arcs, red herrings, pacing, and the precise art of the twist. Keene’s performance grounds the project in human emotion, while AI has refined her features and voice to reflect Christie’s presence as faithfully as possible.

 

However, the Agatha Christie: Writing project has become shrouded in ethical controversy. It has been met with a furious backlash from writers who argue that real life authors could soon be put out of work. BBC and Mr Prichard have been labelled “a bunch of exploitative ghouls”. Social media has gone ballistic, with angry comments, like, “Every single person involved in this charlatanry, which is no different from Ouija boards, fake mediums and all the cons of spiritualism, should be deeply ashamed of themselves.” Someone else cried foul saying, “This is unspeakably gross and creepy. And her family and everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves.” Oops! That was harsh, for sure. While critics universally called the AI learning project “dystopian”, one particularly angry one went on to say, “How utterly disrespectful. How could you think any artist would be okay with you frankensteining their work together in this AI slop and then selling it on subscription? Read the room BBC. I hope those who contributed to this abomination have a hard look in the mirror.”

 

Agatha Christie is the most successful novelist of all time. Over 2 billion books sold — including And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, Five Little Pigs, 66 novels in total — and The Mousetrap, the world’s longest-running play. Christie is unmatched in fiction. Her writing was methodical and meticulous. She understood mystery better than anyone before or after her. She was the undisputed master of the novel structure, the precise placement of clues, carefully sculpted characters, the perfectly timed revelations and subversions. No wonder her narratives are as fresh today as when they were first written 75-80 years ago. Insightful, inventive, involving, and intelligent.

 

Honestly, there is nothing really wrong with the  Agatha Christie: Writing project. It is just being denigrated by a lot of writers and wannabes who think their jobs and livelihood are being undermined by AI. But that is bound to happen — sooner or later. AI is going to increasingly become a greater and greater part of our everyday life. One can quarrel with it; one can curse it; one can shed tears over its probable consequences, but AI is here to stay. The Christie project is just the beginning. If the Agatha Christie course is well received, BBC Maestro has plans to expand the format with other historical authors, potentially including J R R Tolkien and Jane Austen. For now, this experiment in digital resurrection offers both a tribute to Christie’s enduring influence and a new way for budding writers to study the structure of a perfect crime, guided by the very woman who perfected it. 

The author is chairman of Rediffusion