The BBC have been branded ‘exploitative ghouls’ for using an AI Agatha Christie to flog a £79 course for wannabe crime novelists.
The Death on the Nile writer, who died in 1976 aged 85, has been brought back to life in digital form with the power of artificial intelligence.
AI Agatha offers a two-and-a-half-hour crime writing course split over eleven lessons including story structure, plot twists and the art of suspense.
The course is available on BBC Maestro, the corporation’s subscription-based, e-learning platform run by its commercial arm, for £79.
The website states: ‘Want to write the perfect crime story? In this once-in-a-lifetime course – created in collaboration with Agatha Christie’s family and built entirely on her own words about the craft – let the Queen of Crime Fiction herself show you how.’
But it has been met with a furious backlash from writers who argue that real life authors could be put out of work.
Author Christopher Edge wrote online: ‘This feels like a slippery slope and, at a time of declining author incomes, worrying to think we now have to compete with long-dead authors for these opportunities.
‘I previously led a children’s fiction course, but would they have wanted me if they could’ve had “Roald Dahl” instead?’
The BBC have been branded ‘exploitative ghouls’ for using an AI Agatha Christie to flog a £79 course for wannabe crime novelists
The Death on the Nile writer, who died in 1976 aged 85, has been brought back to life in digital form with the power of artificial intelligence
AI Agatha offers a two-and-a-half-hour crime writing course split over eleven lessons including story structure, plot twists and the art of suspense
While writer So Mayer said: ‘Every single person involved in this charlatanry, which is no different from Ouija boards, fake mediums and all the cons of spiritualism, should be deeply ashamed of themselves.
‘What a bunch of exploitative ghouls. They could have hired probs 500 underemployed crime writers to teach small classes for what they spent on this.’
Ali Trotta said: ‘This is unspeakably gross and creepy. And her family and everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves.’
Another online critic branded it dystopian, while another added: ‘How utterly disrespectful. How could you think any artist would be okay with you frankensteining their work together in this AI slop and then selling it on subscription? Read the room BBC. I hope those who contributed to this abomination have a hard look in the mirror.’
Christie, who has sold over two billion novels worldwide, has been played by the actress, Vivien Keene, and CGI effects have been used to modify her face and voice to create the AI Agatha, with the permission of her estate and the novelist’s family.
Keene said: ‘This role was unlike any other in my 44 years of acting. The process required me to study the few existing clips of Agatha very closely, capturing her subtle mannerisms and expressions.
Her writing lessons are based on a various sources including her writings and archival interviews and curated by the leading Christie scholars Dr Mark Aldridge, Michelle Kazmer, Gray Robert Brown and Jamie Bernthal-Hooker.
Aldridge said: ‘We meticulously pieced together Agatha Christie’s own words from her letters, interviews and writings. Witnessing her insights come to life has been a profoundly moving experience.’
The course has been met with a furious backlash from writers who argue that real life authors could be put out of work
Death on the Nile writer Agatha Christie has sold over two billion novels worldwide
James Prichard, Christie’s great-grandson and chief executive of Agatha Christie Limited, said that he and his father had ‘learnt a lot’ from the lessons.
He added: ‘The team of academics and researchers that BBC Maestro has assembled have extracted from a number of her writings an extraordinary array of her views and opinions on how to write.’
‘Through this course, you truly will receive a lesson in crafting a masterful mystery, in Agatha’s very own words.’
Other BBC Maestro teachers, include living authors Julia Donaldson, Lee Child and Harlan Coben but if AI Agatha is a success then it is understood that they could potentially resurrect other authors like JRR Tolkien and Jane Austen.
Michael Levine, BBC Maestro’s chief executive, said the course delivered by AI Agatha was as valuable as those delivered by the living writers.
Levine said: ‘The courses tell people that even authors who are at the top of their game struggle and fail. And there is something inspirational about hearing that even an all-time great like Agatha Christie was influenced by Conan Doyle.’
‘BBC Maestro was established to offer the next generation of talent a way to get started, to learn, not from teachers, but from those who have done it themselves. As an 11-year-old boy reading Why Didn’t they Ask Evans? I could never have imagined that one day, I’d be watching Agatha Christie teaching me how she did it.’
A spokesperson for the BBC said: ‘BBC Studios is incredibly proud of what BBC Maestro has accomplished with this hugely innovative Agatha Christie Writing Course that has the full support of the Christie Estate.’
