We speak to sci-fi icon Amanda Tapping, Stargate showrunner Brad Wright, and Google's AI lead Laurence Moroney about the latest Stargate AI screen read.
Sci-fi is full of cautionary tales about artificial intelligence, machines rising up to make us obsolete, and, if we’re especially unlucky, wipe us out. But what does the cutting edge of AI technology actually look like today? Well, it might shock you to learn that it’s busy learning how to write scripts for new Stargate episodes.
We had the chance to chat with Amanda Tapping, Brad Wright, and Laurence Moroney about the Stargate AI project, life after Stargate, the history of the show, and the possible return of the beloved sci-fi franchise., head on over to The Companion where you can sign up for a free three-month trial. The Stargate AI 2.0 event debuts on May 21st at 11am PDT, 2pm EDT, 7pm BST.
Brad was quite nervous as to whether this would mean writers were out of a job. They don't think that's the case quite yet... but the second iteration was a little frightening in that regard.[Amanda] pretty much hit the nail on the head. [...] Brad was putting out the ideas. Okay, we've got over 300 episodes of Stargate and that's a lot of data. When people build AI they'd like to train it on data, and maybe we have enough data to be able to generate a script.
And if you throw all the scripts at it and ask it to generate something, it will start generating stuff with characters for whom we didn't have the actors or actresses available. Again, you'll hit a wall. So I came up with a new way or a different way of doing this and instead of creating one model, I created individual models for each character.I knew that AI wasn’t really there yet when Laurence accepted the challenge the first time, and the results were hilarious.
And then the third thing would be, and this one's a little bit more vague, but it's how Sam would respond to her own dialogue. Say you have an action description and then there'll be the first thing that Sam would just say in response to that, but then the second thing she would say is generally following the first thing that she said.
One of Rick's reactions to the art had us all laughing and then we couldn't continue. He [Marc] was the one being the perfect MC just brought it all back and just said “next on Stargate after dark." It was perfect.Space.com: Doing the AI read, did you discover that you missed the character more than you maybe thought you did?I did, because after Sam I went on to play Helen Magnus [Sanctuary], who was like a completely different character.
Space.com: Is there a particular highlight of working on Stargate, like a storyline, episode or scene that stands out to you as something special?I loved working with Carmen Argenziano, who played my dad. We had an instant connection and I just adored that man. I'm so sad that he's gone. We had a great time whenever we worked together and it was just so familiar, like he felt like my dad, you know? It was like that from the beginning, so I loved anything to do with the Jacob storyline.
I think because I'm an actor, I play different parts of myself, depending on what's needed. So there's a lot of acting involved in my directing. I hope that doesn't sound bad, but there's a lot of just reading the situation and knowing what it needs from me. I love Kiernan Shipka, who's a huge star. I worked with her on Sabrina and I have never worked with a number one who was that committed, and that gracious. And Eric McCormack on Travelers – just super professional and wonderful. I would work with her, I'd work with Eric, and I'd work with any of the cast from Travelers again. They were all amazing. Space.com: Brad, why are you running a program to help an AI replace you? Aren’t you worried about the AI stealing your job?Nope.
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