A few days ago, producers at the BBC told The Guardian that Blue Planet III, the latest series in the beloved David Attenborough-narrated franchise on our oceans, will feature “more organic” footage than the previous two installments.
According to The Guardian, the new series, which is set to kick off on BBC One and iPlayer on November 1 (8:00 p.m. GMT), will include cloudier and more “authentic” underwater scenes in a bid to stave off any accusations of generative AI (gen AI) having been used.
“As AI booms we will probably lean more into the more organic, murkier and less polished footage,” Elizabeth White, executive producer of the forthcoming series, told The Guardian.
Now, I can understand that the BBC, a leading institution in visual media with a huge reputation to uphold, is wary of being accused of producing AI slop.
What’s more, I can see how it would be even more cautious when this would also risk tarnishing the reputation of a cultural icon as important as Sir David Attenborough.
But as a leading institution, it’s also the BBC’s responsibility to be at the helm of fighting back against gen AI, not pandering to the pressure the technology has piled on photographers and videographers with regard to authenticity.
This situation reminds me of the high-school bullies we all knew when we were younger. Only in this case, the bully is gen AI, and the victims being forced to play elsewhere are the producers of Blue Planet III.
But here’s the thing: bullies have always been around and the only way to disempower them is to stand up to them, which is what the BBC appears to have shied away from in the production of this new series.
Sceptics, who I guess would be a bully’s entourage in my high-school scenario, have always existed too, and now that gen AI is here, there will undoubtedly be comments on whether the technology was used in the latest Blue Planet production.
Above: Trailer for Blue Planet III
But as far as we all know, the BBC has never used gen AI to create programs. And, according to The Guardian, Jack Bootle, the BBC’s head of specialist factual commissioning, even assured journalists at a Blue Planet III press screening that “no gen AI was used in this series. Not a single frame. It’s all real photography.”
So, just because gen AI now exists, it’s not as if skeptics would have any grounds for taking aim at the BBC. Like a victim fighting back, what the BBC producers really should’ve done was not use lower-quality footage out of fear of a scandal these skeptics could whip up.
Instead, it should’ve done the Blue Planet III camera crews and all the viewers who will watch the series justice by producing the highest-quality scenes we already know to be possible.
I really hope that the BBC will not make this approach of using lower-quality, “authentic” footage a concrete policy for any other productions, unless it really does add to the visual narrative. It seems like a victim mentality when, really, the institution should be leading the pushback against gen AI bullies.
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