What Could Go Wrong? Audiobook By Scott Z. Burns cover art

What Could Go Wrong?

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What Could Go Wrong?

By: Scott Z. Burns
Narrated by: Scott Z. Burns
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About this listen

Predicting a global pandemic in a hit movie was impressive. Writing a sequel that will work for today’s world might take a whole different kind of intelligence.

Join Scott Z. Burns, the acclaimed screenwriter of Contagion, as he embarks on a mind-bending quest to create a worthy follow-up to his eerily prophetic film. Reuniting with director Steven Soderbergh, members of the cast and crew, and the scientific experts who advised him on the first film, Burns also turns to an unexpected collaborator: artificial intelligence. But can AI predict the source of the next global pandemic—or at least help convince a Hollywood studio to buy your movie pitch? Down the rabbit hole we go, slipping deeper and deeper into the surreal and unknown to explore if human creativity and AI could join forces.

In this deeply thoughtful, occasionally frightening, and often hilarious behind-the-scenes series, Burns assembles an extraordinary collection of minds (both skeptics and optimists) across the world of academia, the sciences, journalism, and the entertainment industry to weigh in. But Burns' most intriguing collaborators? His ever-expanding cast of AI-generated partners led by the incomparable Lexter, Scott’s extraordinarily gifted, sharp-tongued writing partner and, well ... friend. As the adventure spirals into uncharted territory, one question looms large: In this brave new world of human-AI collaboration, what could possibly go wrong? Listen to find out.

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Editorial Review

A bold experiment
During the height of the COVID pandemic, Scott Z. Burns’s film Contagion saw a resurgence in popularity for obvious reasons: People were watching to make sense of their current reality. So when he was tasked with writing a sequel, his challenge was wondering how to replicate that relevance. In comes arguably the most relevant thing affecting artists and content creators today: generative AI. With a “team” of AI writers, actors, producers, and even a facsimile of Burns’s own foul-mouthed late talent agent, Burns documents his bizarre yet illuminating experiment. The bots sometimes get it right, often get it wrong, occasionally terrify, and always take things in unexpected directions, making for a fascinating case study into what happens when we involve this technology in our artistic endeavors. —Sam D., Audible Editor

Engaging Storytelling • Fascinating Premise • Varied Interviews • Memorable Characters • Balanced Ai Discussion
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Whether this was really a deep dive into AI or a complete fabrication by Scott Burns, I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

Original and compelling look at AI.

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The famous composer (that I only originally knew about from The Music Man constantly said that music recordings would put bands and orchestras out of business since the music would readily be available for sale and anyone could own a copy—staying at home instead of going out to physically listen to music. Perhaps he had part of that right. But creating everything in a movie—the flawed bits of humanity, our shared foibles and gallows humor? That can only be accomplished by real humans. We’re surprising and unique and vulnerable and we understand that while two different people can play the same role—one in a movie and one on Broadway—the only way an actor can play a role in a book is in a writer’s imagination. You can try to get AI to understand us and mimic us, but AI is not us. Not even close.

John Phillip Souza

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Great insights into the intersection of AI, future pandemics, Hollywood and art (not the same thing). Brought up multiple issues I’ve thought about in an entertaining yet thoughtful, engaging

Great insights

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Fantastic dive into creativity & technology & where they intersect, overlap or morph into something new. With the pros & cons scaled for our examination. And no, this was not written by AI.... or was it?... jk, it wasn't... or wa-... (Insert infinite loop)

Contagious interest

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Didn’t care for the music, or how loud it got for intros. I learned a lot about AI bots.

Made me wanna watch this AI creation!

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I thought this was really interesting and surprisingly interesting to get hooked on. If you seem interested, just listen and you’ll love it.

Documentary but also a Story

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I felt his approach was fair and inclusive. I’d like to know what’s next - will the movie be made?

Great perspective

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I liked the behind the scenes interviews with tech people creating the AI platforms. The screenwriter perspective, actor, musician perspective was different from my perspective using AI for social media content.

with all the AI, a different perspective

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I was not expecting the depth of AI to be so well explored. I liked the direction of each episode and continuity across the whole story

Gripping

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Not what I expected from the information provided. It was interesting to hear from an industry insider how AI might be used or affect the future of entertainment. Well produced.

Interesting

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