ONE LAST THING

There's one last thing I want to say on this issue of AI, and why this is personal to me, because I've now had pushback from a few of you. I get that I'm being a bit defensive about it, but y'know... been a tough few years.

Traditional TV in this country has been GUTTED by streaming and YouTube, and TikTok and all that - they, like AI, use data centres. They don't just work by magic. There's an energy and carbon cost, same as with almost everything we do. That plastic tat you buy? WAY worse than AI currently is. Whatever you're reading this post on... I mean, do you KNOW where it was made? How it ended up in your hands? We're hypocrites. All of us.

Also, most pertinently, streaming has led to enormous seismic shifts in the way TV works, and is funded, across the world. Almost every week "defund the BBC" trends on Twitter.

The BBC especially has been eviscerated by repeated attacks on it from every side - because, like it or not, it TRIES to be impartial - and by losing its audience to streaming (ESPECIALLY the kids' audience that I previously earned an income from). It has made it impossible for thousands of creative people to make a living from working in the TV industry this country - actors, writers, directors, producers... all of us.

When Digi and Cheapshow collaborator Ethan Lawrence spoke out last year about how hard it is in the industry now, he got nothing but shit for it - "pampered, privileged actor - get a real job". People are too scared to speak up, because we're not seen as having "real jobs". There's nobody fighting for us. The industry has COLLAPSED. Utterly. We've all been left high and dry, but I have a family and bills, and I had no choice but to find new ways forward.

Perhaps if people like Ethan had been listened to, perhaps if some of the energy people were putting into calling AI evil - because it's backed by techbros (I mean, maybe we should all stop using electronics with transistors in them, because the inventor of the transistor, William Shockley, was a racist eugenicist?) - had been directed at streaming and YouTube, and all of that, perhaps if energy had been put into protecting the creative industries, protecting unique content for young people... the likes of me and Ethan, and every single other writer I know, wouldn't have had a few EXTREMELY tough years.

Perhaps I wouldn't have had my mortgage bounce, and gotten into debt. Perhaps I wouldn't have suffered an insane level of stress during a time in my life that was already insanely stressful.

So, y'know, sorry. But where were these anti-AI people when we needed someone at our backs? Probably watching Stranger Things, or Joe Rogan on their phones or laptops, made by companies who are now cosying up to Trump. I dunno. The AI debate just smacks of hypocrisy and a very specific cause that has become politicised, like every other bloody thing these days.

Look, I love you all, I'm grateful that I have you. We wouldn't have made it through the last few years without you. I understand I may lose Patrons over this, but y'know... I used AI to make some hideous puppets do a stupid dance, and made my show look a bit more expensive. In terms of who I'm hurting by doing that... well, I've had far, far worse shit happen to me in recent years, and hardly anybody had my back. I lost a 25-year award-winning career. I didn't start having a pop at people because they watch YouTube or wouldn't cancel their Netflix subscriptions. Even when I had to borrow money off my sister a couple of years back to literally buy food for my family - while my dad was dying - I had to accept that things were changing. Adapt or die. I think we could all stand to look in the mirror a bit more.

Paul