Stranger Things fans accuse Duffer Brothers of using ChatGPT to write finale

Stranger Things fans are accusing the Duffer Brothers of using generative AI to write the show's fifth and final season. The speculation arose after viewers believed they spotted AI chatbot ChatGPT open on the creators' laptops in behind-the-scenes documentary One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5.

The Stranger Things finale brought the series to an end late last month, wrapping up the popular retro sci-fi show after almost a decade. Unfortunately, the show's conclusion left many viewers dissatisfied, taking to social media to complain that the grand finale felt anticlimactic and unrewarding.

Some fans thought they'd found an explanation for their disappointment when One Last Adventure premiered Monday on Netflix. Covering the production and filming of Stranger Things' final season, the documentary featured footage of the Duffer Brothers working on its scripts. This included shots of their laptop screens as they worked on scripts, which displayed multiple tabs open in their internet browsers (apparently Stranger Things was written in Google Docs).

While most websites displayed seemed relatively innocuous, one particular shot showed several blurry tabs potentially featuring round monochrome icons. Said tabs are too out of focus to be positively identified, and could easily belong to any number of different websites. Even so, Stranger Things fans quickly began speculating that they may have been ChatGPT icons. 

The theory was further fuelled by the documentary's revelation that Stranger Things' fifth season hadn't been completely written when production began. While far from a smoking gun, fans considered this a potential indication that generative AI was used to hasten scriptwriting along.

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Responding to fans' speculation, One Last Adventure's director Martina Radwan cast doubt on whether the blurry tabs were actually ChatGPT, and stated that she hadn't seen Stranger Things' writers use generative AI in ways she'd consider unethical. However, she also expressed the belief that it shouldn't matter if the Duffer Brothers did use ChatGPT, as it's fine for creatives to utilise generative AI as a tool.

"Well, there’s a lot of chatter where [social media users] are like, 'We don’t really know, but we’re assuming.' But to me it’s like, doesn’t everybody have [ChatGPT] open, to just do quick research?" Radwan said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. 

"[N]obody has actually proved that it was open. That's like having your iPhone next to your computer while you’re writing a story. We just use these tools… while multitasking. So there's a lot going on all the time, every time."

Despite Radwan's assertions, not everyone agrees. Fans have acknowledged that there is no clear evidence that ChatGPT was used to write Stranger Things' scripts, and that the Duffer Brothers could easily have been using the AI chatbot for other matters (if they were even using it at all). Even so, many also object to the use of generative AI to research, outline, brainstorm, or plan scripts. As such, potentially having ChatGPT open in the same browser being used to write Stranger Things has left viewers suspicious.

"Wasn't Season 5 filming delayed because of the WGA strike? That would be pretty ironic, considering that regulating AI is just one of the things the WGA is fighting for," wrote reddit user u/Swordman86.

"I cannot for the life of me understand this sudden and enthusiastic desire by people to insert AI into nearly every part of their work and life," u/ Kreol1q1q posted. "Jesus if you are a writer, don’t you take pride in the work you do? Why would you let a moronic glorified chatbot into the thing you are skilled at, and valued for."

"Even if there were no AI tabs open, the writing for S5 was so bad that in my head-canon they almost exclusively used AI off-screen anyways," said u/pat_the_catdad.

Mashable has reached out to Netflix for comment.