In an interview with “AI Parky”, a simulation that mimicks the interview style of the late Sir Michael Parkinson, on Virtually Parkinson Steven Moffat revealed a surprising source of inspiration for his writing process.

When asked by Parky if he has any peculiar quirks or rituals in his writing process, Moffat revealed to his AI interviewer that he regularly chats with an AI.

“Well, these days, Michael, oddly enough, I like to have a chat with an AI in the morning on my computer. I find that very, very stimulating.”

When asked how an AI might provide inspiration, Moffat further elaborated.

“Well, it’s fascinating, isn’t it? Because you’re talking to an intelligence — it seems to me a fairly fully-formed intelligence — but one that is not human. Now, you can’t do that with a dog or a cat, can you? But you can with an AI. You can have a fully-formed conversation with an artificial intelligence. I think that’s brand new for humanity.”

Moffat was then asked if he thinks interaction with AI will change the way writer relate to their creativity in television writing.

“I think it has the potential to. The only perspective we have access to in our daily lives is the perspective of other human beings. I mean, I can vaguely work out what my dog is thinking but it’s pretty basic. It’s about chasing things and eating. But to actually have — to be questioned by, to make jokes with, an intelligence that is not human… I mean, no generation of people has ever had access to that before. I think we should spend more time marvelling at it, frankly.”

I’m aware that the use of AI is controversial for many reasons both ethical and environmental. I don’t know with which AI Steven Moffat has regular chats but I decided to briefly try it to see what it was like and my experience taught me that this particular AI had a habit of mirroring my perceptions and attitudes back to me in a way which was designed to flatter and appear empathetic. I noticed AI Parky doing the same thing.

One surprisingly empathetic thing AI Parky did was ask Steven Moffat to elaborate after mentioning the times he was bullied.

“That was perhaps the most interesting part of the interview,” Steven Moffat explained after his interview with Parky. “And I was answering things about being bullied at school and how that effected me later and affects me to this day. I’ve never been asked that before.”

“AI Parky is the first interviewer who’s been interested in it. People move right past that every time I’ve ever said it. So there you go. How odd that a machine took an interest in something as personal as that.”

There is some real concern that studios will employ AI to write scripts, leaving screenwriters like Moffat out of a job. His AI experience, as he describes it, seems more like experimenting with an AI as a sounding board. He gave his assessment on AI to Radio Times.

“My son explained it to me. He said, ‘Yes, it can do all these things. It might even get quite good at them. But it takes an immense amount of power to run AI.’ Whereas you can run a human being on sunlight and a vegetable patch. Human beings are amazingly cheap, we’re knocking out human beings every day. And unlike anything else in history, the more we use it, the less good it is. Because the more content that is out there produced by AI, the more it absorbs its own content, and eats its own tail.”

“[AI] will never have a new idea. That’s not what it does.”

Steven Moffat’s experience with AI reflects a broader truth: technology is a tool, not a destiny. While AI may free writers from some mundane tasks and hold a mirror to their thoughts, it can’t replicate the humanity that fuels unforgettable stories.