Brad Wright is a Canadian television producer and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of the television series Stargate SG-1 , Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe. We caught up with him to find out more about his latest project, Stargate AI.
How did the Stargate AI project come about?
I have been working with The Companion for about a year, writing essays and doing a podcast. (It’s a fabulous app and I think they’re onto something big!) They asked me at one point if I would be interested in hosting a reunion or read-through with some of the Stargate cast. I thought it was a great idea to do a read-through, but what material could we use? I had written a new pilot for MGM, but the pandemic and subsequent sale of MGM to Amazon put anything like that on hold.
I have always been interested in AI. Travelers, my most recent series that ran 3 seasons on Netflix, was very much about the relationship between humans and AI. So I thought, what if we got an AI to “read” the hundreds of hours of Stargate scripts, then wrote something new? The guys at The Companion loved the idea and we put it out there to see if any experts in AI would put up their hand.
Laurence Moroney, the lead AI advocate at Google, (whom I had met years ago when I was working on SGU) volunteered to create a state-of-the-art AI program to write scenes for us. He started from scratch, creating models for each of the characters we wanted to involve. I suggested we go with the Stargate “scientists” Carter, Daniel, McKay and Dr Keller. Laurence spent months creating new programs and building clusters of AIs to do the work and the resulting scenes are enlightening and entertaining. Sometimes hilarious.
How would you describe it to a beloved relative who isn’t into sci-fi?
It’s like we said to our phones: “Hey google, write scenes for Stargate.”
Are you concerned that script-writers will be out of a job?
In a word, no. AI isn’t really anywhere near replacing human writers. There is no actual mind there to create the goals and intentions necessary to create story and drama. But as a science experiment it’s fascinating. It was also a great way to get several members of our old band back together.
Will the plot involve Replicators? Isn’t this the sort of thing they’d do?
Ha! No. That doesn’t mean an AI couldn’t write a scene about replicators.
How much does working with an AI feel like you’re living in a sci-fi world of your own devising?
I’m always living in a sci-fi world.
What’s been the biggest challenge so far?
Laurence had the biggest challenge. He spent hours creating the models and even wrote a program that allowed the AI clusters to access and interpret the scripts. And of course The Companion had to put it all together! For me it’s just been fun.
Is there a plan to get the AI to write some episodes of Wormhole X-Treme? What would you imagine that would be like?
One of the reasons this project is unique is that there is so much material for the AI to use as the basis for its scripts. Daniel, Carter, McKay and Dr Keller said thousands of words which the AI could draw upon. Wormhole Extreme had very little dialogue in comparison, so practically it would be more difficult. AI has no imagination to extrapolate more episodes.
As fans, how can we help bring about another Stargate series?
I am sure MGM will do something, especially now that they’re owned by Amazon. Keep the flame burning! My goal in doing this was to remind MGM and Amazon that there is still a fandom out there for the characters in the SG-1, Atlantis and SGU universe.
Will we ever return to Stargate Universe?
As a continuation of the original series, I think that’s unlikely. But I do hope if Stargate continues in the future, we learn what happened to Destiny. I don’t think our team would just leave them stranded.
What would you pick, Truth or Beauty?
Door number three.
The Stargate AI reunion read-through video is available on The Companion from November 23rd. You can sign up for a membership here: https://bit.ly/3kt64RJ
