At Lincoln Center, audiences gathered in anticipation of Ayad Akhtar’s theater production, McNeal, which stars Robert Downey Jr. and features ChatGPT in a supporting role. This play, among others, explores the longstanding interplay between artificial intelligence (AI) and the arts. In 1920, prior to Alan Turing’s development of his famous test and long before the Dartmouth conference of 1956 coined the term "artificial intelligence," Czech playwright Karel Čapek introduced the word "robot" in R.U.R.—Rossum’s Universal Robots. Čapek’s work portrayed an android revolt that decimates humanity, leaving only one survivor, positioning him as an early commentator on AI pessimism.
Meanwhile, another theatrical work, Doomers, hit New York City stages in a small black-box theater. This production dramatizes the events of a weekend during which OpenAI’s nonprofit board fired CEO Sam Altman, only for him to be reinstated following an employee uprising. These productions, although not as lavish as Broadway musicals, delve into themes that resonate in Silicon Valley, Congressional hearings, and gatherings like the annual NeurIPS conference. Through these narratives, the creators express a compelling interest in the influence of superintelligent AI on the human creative process.
Doomers was created by playwright and screenwriter Matthew Gasda, who focuses on contemporary themes. Gasda’s previous works include Dimes Square, centered on downtown hipsters, and Zoomers, featuring Gen-Z characters from Brooklyn. After learning about the OpenAI incident, Gasda saw an opportunity to address more profound themes beyond the lives of young New Yorkers. The circumstances surrounding Altman’s dismissal and reinstatement evoked a Shakespearean quality. Gasda’s play unfolds in two acts with two distinct casts: one depicting Altman’s team in exile and the other portraying the board, including a character seemingly inspired by AI theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky and a speculative venture capitalist. They engage in conversations about AI’s potential and ethical implications while dealing with their own challenges.
Gasda intentionally crafted the narrative to reflect the incomplete resolution of these challenges. The first act concludes with characters consuming alcohol, and in the second, they take hallucinogenic mushrooms. Gasda acknowledges that his characters intentionally evade the consequences of AI development, implying this avoidance could be a message itself. He also hints at a more ominous undertone, suggesting the fictional AI is strategically manipulating the characters, leaving the audience to interpret its authenticity. Doomers continues to run in Brooklyn and is set to premiere in San Francisco in March.
In contrast, McNeal presents a more ambitious production on Broadway. The play involves a character, Jacob McNeal, portrayed by Downey Jr., who embodies a narcissistic novelist and substance abuser entangled in the allure of AI-generated creativity. The production uses flashing screens to illustrate AI as an integral character, depicting McNeal’s descent into dependency on what is portrayed as a dangerous tool: the large language model.
Both Ayad Akhtar and Matthew Gasda express concerns about AI’s integration into the writing process. Akhtar, a Pulitzer Prize winner, mentioned in an interview with The Atlantic that his substantial work with large language models (LLMs) significantly enhanced his play, ultimately allowing ChatGPT to contribute to the play’s final word. Akhtar perceives the use of AI as fitting, acknowledging its integral role in developing the play. Conversely, Gasda, who credited ChatGPT and Claude in the Doomers program, fears AI may appropriate his work. He speculates that human writers might resort to producing handwritten drafts to protect their ideas from AI. Gasda has also completed a novel set in 2040, centered around a writer who has sold all his creative works to AI, leaving him devoid of purpose.