You guys, I’m already so tired of writing about AI. I don’t want to see it anymore. But that’s not going to happen any time soon, especially not with the barrage of major corporations attempting to utilize it to get out of paying actual human beings to do work. And they always seem to receive criticism for this! The vast majority of people can both tell when they see AI-generated content and actively reject it. The latest blunder comes via Amazon whose own recap for Prime Video’s megahit Fallout is AI slop that has easily verifiable inaccuracies.
The first outlet to cover this news was GamesRadar and holy cow does this make Prime look real bad. The biggest takeaway is artificial intelligence can’t seem to tell the difference between legitimate history and retrofuturism. The recap thinks the nuclear destruction that kicks off the series takes place in the 1950s. This is *checks notes* not at all true. The aesthetic of the series is certainly 1950s-coded, but it begins in 2077.
Not only that, but it just totally lies about what happens at the end of the season. The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) and Lucy (Ella Purnell) left the season side by side, both going after her father (Kyle MacLachlan) who escaped to New Vegas. It’s a mutually beneficial circumstance. At no point, however, did the Ghoul give Lucy the ultimatum that if she didn’t go with him, he’d kill her. But that’s what the recap intimates.
Fallout is one of Prime’s most acclaimed and popular series. The second season, which premieres December 17, is one of the most anticipated of the year. We’re thrilled to watch. Which is why it just stinks that the mega-conglomerate that produces it couldn’t scrounge up a couple hundred bucks to pay someone to write a five minute recap video and had to rely on ChatGPT or whatever. And then they couldn’t even proofread it.
It’s a shame and it bothers me.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.