- BBC Maestro launched a writing lesson taught posthumously by an AI version of Agatha Christie
- The author’s digital recreated version was made with the vocal reconstruction of the AI and the visual effects
- Performance mixes AI assets with the performance of a real actress and is entirely based on the real recordings and writings of Christie
In a twist worthy of her own novels, Agatha Christie returned almost half a century after her death to teach a course on the writing of Mysteries.
The BBC Maestro succeeded in the most theatrical literary return of recent memory by resuscitating the queen from the crime to teach a writing course beyond the grave. The new offer, simply entitled “Agatha Christie: Writing”, is part of the growing masterclasses list led by the platform. But unlike the other 40 living instructors, it required a little more reconstruction.
The Agatha Christie Risenée Numérique is a carefully designed performance, built from a mosaic of original records, letters and interviews, associated with the physical incarnation of the actress Vivien Keene.
She studied the limited appearances of the author’s camera and physically carried out segments based on real advice from Christie. Then, like a digital corset, artists with visual effects superimposed facial characteristics generated by AI on Keene’s face, sculpting a younger and more user -friendly version of Christie’s camera.
The result is strange but relatively anchored in relation to certain creations of deep AI. It looks more like a very high -end historical dramatization, except using AI instead of makeup and prostheses. The voice in particular stands out thanks to the developer of the synthetic voice Ai Resechecher.
Using Christie recordings, Reheecher has digitally rebuilt and cloned his voice. The result does not frank her vocal clips, but imitates how she spoke by using words that she really said.
Ai Agatha
Despite being a gadget, videos do not appear like a gadget, but rather land as a tribute too loving. This is also how Keene and the producers launch the class. They want students to consider it a very high -end theater with AI assistance for special effects.
This could save them from some of the reactions felt by other productions bringing the faces or voices of deceased. Many have been upset to hear the cloned voice of Anthony Bourdain’s AI in a documentary after his death, and Gabby Petito’s voice in a documentary on his own murder.
Obtain permission from Christie’s family will probably attenuate this. This is like the way James Earl Jones concluded an agreement with Disney before dying, allowing them to use his voice for Dark Vader in certain circumstances. Or how ElevenLabs signed agreements with the domains of James Dean, Burt Reynolds, Judy Garland and Sir Laurence Olivier to let him add AI of their voices to his reading application. On the other hand, Robert Downey Jr. has promised that AI will never reproduce it on the screen.
The fact that the voice of AI only uses Christie’s real words was mandated by Christie’s grandson and testamentary executor of her succession, James Prichard. To obtain permission from the project, the BBC MaSSTRO had to accept not to invent new opinions in its voice. Each advice comes directly from its own writings, author notes and correspondence.
Bringing together more than 100 people to produce an online course when it generally takes only a handful of production and technical team seems madly indulgent. But Maestro clearly estimated that it was worth it and the investment of time to offer a class taught by the replica of the AI of the best -selling novelist in history, covering 11 video modules and 12 writing exercises. If he succeeds, the next mystery will be whose spirit will be summoned for the next class.
