[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Black Mirror, Season 6 Episode 1, “Joan Is Awful.”]
The Season 6 premiere of Black Mirror plays into the fears of deepfakes and AI taking over our daily lives when protagonist Joan Tait’s (Annie Murphy) life is upended after not reading over the terms and conditions of a Netflix-like service called Streamberry.
Much to Joan’s chagrin, she had unwittingly signed over the rights to her name and likeness, allowing the streamer to adapt her life into a dramatized TV show in near real-time using a quantum computer and Salma Hayek’s own digital likeness.
Curious if there could be similar real-life consequences for not reading the fine print, viewers of “Joan Is Awful” naturally turned to Google to find out. Per Google Trends (via Casino Alpha), searches for “Netflix terms and conditions” spiked a whopping 596% within three days of the Season 6 debut.
As it turns out, you can rest assured that Netflix’s actual terms of use doesn’t allow the company to adapt your life in near real-time — for now, at least.
Shortly after the new season was released, Netflix leaned into the bit by launching a working Streamberry website in which fans can star in their own version of “You Are Awful” by giving Netflix the right to use their name and likeness in promotional material for the experience.
In a world where the Writers Guild of America has received pushback from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over banning AI bots from writing or rewriting material, it’s not too much of a reach to see a future in which true story adaptations could hit streaming services in a matter of days rather than months or years.
#NewProfilePic https://t.co/UnR4DULFrW
— Netflix (@netflix) June 20, 2023
Madison Is Awful, now streaming in London. #YouAreAwful https://t.co/EikpJg84ye pic.twitter.com/OpV8Oa7Wx4
— Black Mirror (@blackmirror) June 22, 2023
