'A chilling prospect': should we be scared of AI contestants on reality shows?

According to his profile, Max, a contestant on season six of the Netflix reality show The Circle, is 26 years old, brunette and into his Australian shepherd, Pippa. He is a veterinary intern from Pismo Beach, California, and a bit cheeky – "single, but my dog is taken". He enters into the Circle chat, the fake social media service contestants use to vie for 100,000, posting either as themselves, an embellished version of themselves or a fully fake identity, with ease. He seems so real," says Lauren, a fellow twentysomething hoping to build enough online alliances and secure enough positive peer reviews to win, upon seeing Max's profile. You just know the producers ate that up, because "Max" is the front for an AI chatbot, a new gimmick to up the ante in this middleweight reality show. The Circle has nowhere near the following of Love Island, but hasn't sunk to the bottom of the streaming service slush pile – and is the latest example of artificial intelligence's seemingly inexorable ...