The ‘Stranger Things’ and ChatGPT mess gets messier

Hey, Popculturology fans. It’s been a busy week, filled with questions about whether or not the Stranger Things folks used ChatGPT, the introduction of a new titan for Godzilla and Kong to battle, and the late-breaking news that the studio behind Star Wars was making a leadership change.

Love reading Popculturology? Become a subscriber to receive every edition in your inbox.

Subscribe

Using ChatGPT for writing research feels like a strange(r) thing to do

There were some elements of the Stranger Things series finale — bits of dialogue, settings, even an anachronistic Dungeons and Dragons element — that had people asking, Hey, did ChatGPT write this episodes?

That question seemingly began as shorthand for “this sucks, so it must’ve been written by generative AI” ... but then it took a turn when people were pretty sure they spotted ChatGPT tabs open in a shot of a Stranger Things script featured in One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5.

This sparked enough controversy — with some people saying that, no, those weren’t ChatGPT tabs — that the creator of the Stranger Things documentary was asked whether the Duffer brothers used ChatGPT to write this season. The chat between The Hollywood Reporter’s Tony Maglio and Martina Radwan didn’t help the situation ...

You’ve got super fans pausing and zooming in on individuals frames of your documentary. One allegedly shows one of the Duffers with a ChatGPT tab open on their computer. Did they use ChatGPT in your presence, and if so, what for?

I mean, are we even sure they had ChatGPT open?

I’m personally not, but the internet seems sure.

Well, there’s a lot of chatter where [social media users] are like, “We don’t really know, but we’re assuming.” But to me it’s like, doesn’t everybody have it open, to just do quick research?

I do.

How can you possibly write a storyline with 19 characters and use ChatGPT, I don’t even understand.

I don’t think many fans truly believe the Duffers had gen-AI write their scripts, I think it’s more of an aversion to the use of the technology in general in Hollywood.

Again, first of all, nobody has actually proved that it was open. That’s like having your iPhone next to your computer while you’re writing a story. We just use these tools … while multitasking. So there’s a lot going on all the time, every time. What I find heartbreaking is everybody loves the show, and suddenly we need to pick it apart.

“Doesn’t everybody have it open, to just do quick research?” No! No, we don’t. Google? Definitely. Wikipedia. It’s 2026, so it’s cool. But the predictive text bot? What exactly is the Stranger Things creative “researching” in ChapGPT?

When asked if she “didn’t witness an unethical use of generative-AI in the writers room,” Radwan told THR, “No, of course not. I witnessed creative exchanges. I witnessed conversation.”

This is a real “My ‘I didn’t witness an unethical use of generative-AI in the writers room’ T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt” situation ...