Agatha Christie is dead. But Agatha Christie has just begun teaching writing classes, too.
“I have to admit it,” she said.
The literary legend died in 1976 and was invited to teach a course with BBC Maestro, an online lecture series similar to a master class. Together with dozens of other experts, Christie can provide any aspiring writer with 79 pounds (about $105) backup writer.
She got a reboot with the help of a group of academic researchers who wrote scripts with her writings and archive interviews and made “digital prosthetics” with artificial intelligence, then installed the performance of the real actor.
“We are not trying to pretend in any way that this is Agatha to life,” Michael Levine, CEO of BBC Maestro, said in a telephone interview. “This is just a representative of the craft Agatha teaches herself.”
The release of the course coincides with a fierce debate on the ethics of artificial intelligence. In the UK, potential changes to copyright law have frightened artists, fearing that this will allow their work to be used to train AI models without consent. However, in this case, there is no copyright issue: Christie's family (managing her property) is fully joined by the boat.
“We just have to be her words,” said her great-grandson James Prichard.
Christie isn't the only one who resurrected with AI: using the technology to talk to the dead has become a wealthy nostalgic cottage industry.
She was not the first dead person to become an incarnation.
In 2021, AI is used to generate Anthony Bourdain's voice and read his own words. Actor Peter Cushing has been resurrected to act in the film. Last year, Polish radio stations “interviewed” the dead brightness with AI, causing many to worry that it was already talking in her mouth.
For Christie, AI is only used to create its own portraits, not to build courses or write scripts.
That's why Mr. Levin rejected the idea that this is Agatha Christie Deepfake. “The meaning of the word 'fake'' shows that it's a bit out of the blue,” he said. “And I don't think that's the case.”
Mr Pritchard said his family would never agree to the project inventing Christie’s point of view. They are proud of the course.
“We are not speaking for her,” he said. “We are collecting what she says and publishing it in a digestible and shareable format.”
A group of academic teams incorporate statements from Christie’s archives to refine her advice on the writing process. They carefully retain what they think is her meaning, with the aim of helping more fans interact with her work and write in novels.
“We didn't do anything like her advice and what she did,” said Mark Aldridge, who led the academic team.
For Carissa Véliz, a professor at the Institute of AI Philosophy and Ethics at Oxford, this is still “very problematic”.
Even if the author's family agreed, Christie didn't and could not agree to the course. This is complicated for any historical replay or animation, but Dr. Véliz points out that writers spend hours finding the right word or the right rhythm.
“Agatha Christie never said these words,” Dr. Véliz said in a telephone interview. “She wasn't sitting there. So, yes, it's a deep material.”
“When you see someone who looks like Agatha Christie, like Agatha Christie, I think the boundaries are easy to blur,” she said, adding, “What are we going to get?”
But Felix M. Simon, a researcher at Reuters AI and digital journalism at Oxford University, noted that the Christie’s aims to entertain and educate, which the author did while he was still alive.
Dr. Simon said the representative originated from “close to her actual writings and her true words, so to some extent, her thoughts extend.”
“After death, there is also very little risk of this kind of harm in her dignity or reputation,” he said. “I think that makes these cases so complicated because you can’t apply a tough and quick rule for each of them and say, ‘This is usually good or usually bad.’”
Perhaps this fact-fictionist Murch is just in an era when AI can be used to complete sentences, replace work, and even try to resurrect the dead.
Either way, the creator thinks Christie (the brave and creative adventurer) will love it. “Can we know with certainty that she will approve this?” said Mr Levin of the BBC master. “We hope. But we don't know clearly because she's not here.”
