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