BBC head says he was sent a 50-minute AI-made episode of Doctor Who – and it was "not bad"

BBC boss Matt Brittin has shared his thoughts on AI and revealed that someone sent him an AI-generated episode of Doctor Who. Speaking at the Royal Television Society conference, he rated the result fairly highly.

According to Brittin, technology has made content creation available to everyone.

"Everyone's got the ability in their hands – or six billion people have – to create content at the standard of a Hollywood studio."

The BBC head then gave a specific example.

"Somebody sent me a 50-minute episode of Doctor Who that was AI-generated the other day. It's pretty good. I mean, it's not going to replace humans, and we'll come on to that. So everyone's a creator. Not all the creativity is bad."

The comment lands at a tricky time for the franchise. Ncuti Gatwa left the show after two seasons, and the cliffhanger that saw the Doctor regenerate into Billie Piper will likely never be resolved. The Christmas special has been cancelled, and showrunner Russell T Davies has exited the project.

The BBC is also putting Doctor Who out to tender. The show's future remains uncertain.

The BBC explained the special's cancellation in an official statement: "This decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be disappointing for fans, but in order to set the show up for future series, it was decided that rather than bridge the gap with a one off special, we are choosing to push forward to invest in the long-term future of the show which ensures that when the TARDIS lands once more, it does so in all its glory."