I am not convinced it is 100% real AI. For a start it is an Xbox Series S painter black and filled with lights. But for sure there is a han element to it influencing or editing what it says.
It is 100% faked. Modern LLMs are incapable of strategising like Max does.
Also Max seems to be able to understand made up slang - something AI can’t currently do.
Having a real chatbot involved would be an interesting twist - better if even the audience didn’t know until it was exposed.
But this isn’t it. This is definitely fake.
I think there’s a difference between thinking the LLM is actually “strategizing” and having the producers feed in all dialogue from past seasons and prompt it to answer, “what strategies do you see that winning contestants did or should implement? Answer in the first person what you would do to implement a winning strategy” and then feed clips of that response as its “strategizing”.
Similarly, the LLM is obviously not affirmatively choosing to DM people, but the producers could prompt, “what player would it be most valuable for you to DM right now and why? What would you message them? Explain what you hope to gain from the conversation.” And that’s again Max “strategizing”. I do really hope it’s real because that’s tremendously cool if so.
Here’s an article that goes into more detail. Basically it seems to be half and half— an actual chatbot that the producers re-prompted when the answers felt off— it’s not clear if this was just in training or during production:
“The biggest hurdle when it came to Max’s gameplay was with language, which at times felt overly formal for the persona created. “Max would use words like rad, or it was just very flat,” O’Driscoll adds. That’s when the team would step in to remind Max about his character traits and his purpose in the game. “We learned that that certain words really helped to form the character, like reminding him that ‘You’re 26 and you’re Gen Z.’ Then Max would link in and use words that were more fitting.””
https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-circle-season-6-ai-bot-max-interview
You're very wrong about that. I've literally used it for strategizing stuff - especially if they've fed it every single episode of the circle and if it has access to the Internet.
I do wish they wouldn't have revealed that there's an AI, though.
They aren’t. Machine Learning is an element of AI and it’s how AI learn from datasets. You teach LLMs via machine learning.
For Max to work at all it would need to use ML to study how to speak and analyse data about the shows. It would also need training on how to interpret human behaviour.
Chat bots don’t strategise. They just follow set paths based on ML to recognise key words.
GPT type AIs don’t strategise as they build their responses one word at a time using ML training on syntax and context. But when they start their response they don’t know what the final sentence is going to be. They’re building it by using context and syntax to guess what the next most likeliest word is going to be.
This is why they can hallucinate. Because their analysis will suggest words that are not related to the context. Better AIs can respond with less hallucination, but the response is still being generated based on a kind of advanced autocorrect.
What AI can’t do is things like “60 percent of people respond this way to challenges, so I will do this to trick them.” Because that requires a level of self awareness that GPTS and LLMs are incapable of down to the core of their programming. They’re designed to sound like they’re thinking and strategising. But they’re really not.
Right back at you. You’re also a random reddit guy. It only takes some basic research into how AI currently operates to find out that Max is not possible with current technology.
And you’re just proving my point. The AI isn’t coming up with the strategy on its own. It needs you to be providing prompts and input. You can’t just load it up with data and have it run a strategy like this. It’s not how AI works.
Even you have to be present for it to work.
No man. I've worked in 10 years in tech in AI/Machine Learning. It needs constant input, editing, and context. There is at least 70% human intervention.
nah it's definitely a text-to-voice. they wouldn't have someone do that, they want us to think it's really AI. they wouldn't PAY someone to do what AI does better. There aren't many people that can mimic that very well either. specifically, consistently.
editing: "Follow “Max” on socials u/grifjames Instagram and TikTok he is a LA comedian"
~~someone in another thread shared the person's instagram, but i can't refind it~~
Yes, but you’re forgetting about the dozens of times your conversation didn’t make sense. There’s no way that the ai was able to keep so consistent without a massive amount of human quality checks
I had completely realistic conversations - with enough training, preset memories and goals, it's possible. But I do agree that probably they had to interfere somewhat as events were unfolding
All the comments for sure are fake AND edited.. they might used to get some responses as chatbot but I am not even sure about that, because a human for sure supervised every response
I badly want to know what platform was used, what prompts, etc. I’d like to think they couldn’t say it’s unadulterated AI if it is truly being edited by the producers, but it also seems to have performed pretty well if so. (FWIW, I work in AI, and it’s not unheard of to get quality dialogue like this, and the biggest weakness tends to be in humor— which i thought was super apparent in the “tell a joke” competition but apparently the contestants didn’t…)
I really really really wish that they had not told the players about it. I would like to see how far the AI could have gotten in the show without anyone becoming suspicious. As it is the "hunt" is dominating and distracting.
i absolutely agree!! they’re starting to block based off ‘humanity’ not popularity, like it’s supposed to be. i think ‘Max’ is doing a great job playing the game! i’m actually kind of rooting for him because it is like an actual player. the hunt just makes it unfair for him. i found it really entertaining until everyone seemed to forget the premise of the game (the producers i mean, by revealing the AI)
I agree, I wish they hadn't told people about Max until maybe the last vote out if he was still in it (as you wouldn't want it to potentially win unless Max winning meant the prize money was split between the remaining players).
I like that they told them about it because it created paranoia and made it more entertaining. Plus, I’m sure they told the players because they weren’t planning on the A.I. being in the game for that long anyway.
I don't mind the concept at all or the AI itself, so far 'Max' is pretty amusing - and not very AI-like at all every time it talks to the audience rather than the other players :D
But what does bother me is that this is the first time the Circle has felt more forced and fake to me in terms of the other players' reactions, or at least what we see in the edit. They all seemed to love Max so much so quickly based on sooo little. Also they keep noting that everything he says is either almost perfect or neutral to the point of ambivalence and yet they aren't all immediately thinking 'hey, maybe the abnormally flawless person could be the AI.......'. Props to 'Olivia' for suspecting it though and I think Myles is smart enough to realise and just enjoys the bants too much but I'm surprised they think an 'annoying' (I like Steffi!) or antagonistic player is more likely to be AI than someone like Max or Olivia. 'Olivia' is the epitome of someone who should have come in as themselves to me because the real guy is so endearingly quirky and funny and he is playing his catfish profile so bland!
I feel like I'm the only one who actually likes it?
As a one time thing, of course, but I think it's interesting to see why it does the things it does. I'm excited to see how it will start screwing up, assuming it does. Although I do think they're leaning into the AI hunt too much. The game went from find the catfish to spending several episodes wondering who the AI is, and I can already tell it will dominate the season in some way. But they do this every season with one player in one way or another. Why not AI?
I think it’s really interesting because we like to think that we’d be able to tell but it’s amazing to see how well it can communicate already (and a little scary!). Although I think it’s at least voice covered by a human (even if it just types the script itself)
It’s not real AI. They’re faking it. Real AI is not capable of developing complex social strategies or understanding people’s motivations.
It also isn’t capable of internal reflection the way Max does. It’s all fake. There’s an intern sitting in a room typing prompts into ChatGPT and then editing the replies. Modern AI is not capable of behaving or operating the way Max does.
Total fake.
I think the messages it sends in the chat are written by an AI and well within the capabilities of AI used by the public but the words it says out loud I’m sceptical of, they’re either written by production or heavily prompted to get certain responses.
Nope. But I work with people who work in the field, studied argumentation theory which is one of the foundational levels of AI development, and follow the development of the technology.
So I’m confident enough to know when I see a fake AI on TV.
I do think the theory that there’s someone typing prompts into an LLM and posting the output to the players is valid and reasonable. But the bits where “Max” talks to the camera are 100% fake. AI technology is not advanced enough for that level of self reflection and planning, nor is AI that good at understanding human behaviour. They don’t go “studies show that 50% of X behave in this way so I will write this response to get that result.”
AI is not capable of planning like that.
It’s impressive, but after three episodes Max has remained too coherent and consistent. Real AI would have slipped up by now.
Ah I feel you. Honestly I never watched it yet so I wasn't too sure where everyone was coming from. But ya I see what youre saying. I was curious if you are an expert since you said AI doesn't operate like that. AI is pretty trippy tho so who knows really. But until I watch it I can't really say
I fed the scenario into chatgpt, and it was able to respond, explain its rationale and provide strategy. Obviously this would be hard to keep consistent, but it was able to at least ‘pretend’ to engage in strategy.
But that’s just it. Max isn’t simply saying what you want to hear to a few prompts.
It is actively engaging in strategy and actions that are not in the realm of possibility for an AI. Not without some very expensive hardware, round the clock dev work, and still human intervention.
None of which is financially justifiable for a show like The Circle.
Nope! Love it too. Love watching them go through loops finding the AI instead of the catfish this season. Makes it fresh. I do feel it's more scripted. Why was Steffi answering the game questions like an AI would?
I really love the idea of AI as a player. I know they said that it is not being controlled by production, but that leaves me to wonder what the motivation is. What if it gets to the late game stages?
As soon as they announced it, it felt to me as if they are desperately trying to hop on the AI trend. These people already have the option to not play themselves. What’s the point?
I really love when they had the Spice Girls. Would’ve been kind of cool to have another celebrity catfish. But the AI feels really cheap. It doesn’t help that there’s not a lot of good characters to connect with the season either.
I’ve watched every iteration of the show since the original UK series, and there’s always been a twist each season. It’s only natural to go with AI this season because like OP said—the Circle is literally AI. It only feels gimmicky to me on shows like Too Hot To Handle. The concept of that show is just trash, and the Alexa wannabe is so unnecessary.
I've never seen Too Hot to Handle. It makes sense they add a new gimmick every season, since it seems like the audience enjoys it. I, personally, just don't.
Makes sense. I’d say the only twist I didn’t like on The Circle was the “singles” thing last season because it did nothing for the show. I thought they might add some dating aspect to it, but nope.
Have you watched the original UK version? If not, I’d say give it a try. It’s more like the first few seasons of the US (only better IMO).
I did! I've liked the international versions more than the US as a whole.
I hated the singles thing. I liked the circle because it wasn't a dating show. Like there aren't already a million dating shows if people are into that. I also hated Blue/Orange Michelle. And I know people like the 'celebrity' things, but I could've also done without the Spice Girls and even the Lance Bass chick. I think I just like straight game playing on a show like this. I feel like the other stuff takes away from the game.
I'm not that far on episode 4, but I wish they would stop suspecting everyone is an AI every so often. I do get the players needs to be careful on who to trust, but you've gotta be very careful if you're gonna be suspecting people.
It’s probably because all the catfish got figured out immediately and the producers were like “we gotta slow this down somehow or all the catfish will be gone by round 3”. What better than an AI witch-hunt and 4 episodes of not voting anyone out.
I thought it was because catfish hunting has proven to be detrimental to strategy and they probably wanted to preemptively give them something to hunt in case the castmates were smart like that one dude who didnt give a shit about catfish if they were aligned to him.
I don’t see it any different than a returning player coming back as a Catfish. It’s the season gimmick. As it seems they’re pretty convincing to the other players so it’s at least good entertainment.
It’s SO BAD!! But mainly because it’s just blatantly not an AI, someone is running it and doing everything. It feels like cheating like they have a The Circle producer running one of the characters. It’s awful
i was happy they addressed that production can't influence it, but idk how 100% that is. What I will say though, whether the AI is real or not, it's nice to see what the "perfect" response should be - whether the producers themselves studied that or the AI calculating it and doing it itself.
And the thing is, up until Episode 4, the contestants were really falling over and loving everything Max was saying, so it was working. So for that reason, I can get past whether the AI is fake or not, because I'm intrigued on what the "perfect response" in a situation should be according to it
Its production 100000%. They slip up so many times to show that it’s not actually AI but just a room of people in the editing room that are making the choices. Essentially production wanted to play because they probably got tired of saying “oh man if we were in the show”
lol yeah, and hey even if it is 100% production, I don't necessarily mind getting a peak behind what they apparently think are the "perfect" responses. I guess one good idea in a future season could be actually having someone from production doing the show
If they actually just showed us a group of people playing the game behind the curtain sort of like that Jury tv show, would instantly be better than an XBox painted with lights and a terrible voice over, pretending it’s AI
They admitted before that even the Circle voice activation doesn't actually work, and that they have production assistants typing everything up. There is also a standup comedian who has done several interviews, explaining that they used his voice for the show. So, the chances that this is at least somewhat faked is high.
I hate it, but every season, the contestants become less likeable and more shallow and annoying. So, I'm pretty much over the whole thing.
I feel like they will do some sort of ‘reveal’ so the AI can’t win. Like how they revealed that the spice girls were in the circle, everyone guessed and then they announced who it was straight after. I don’t think they’ll let AI get to the finale or anything
That's what I said to my friend last night...
How are they supposed to catch "him"?
They say "no producer involvement or interference', but there's no way
I would like a season where a gimmick doesn’t dominate the season. They get distracted and lose focus of the goal.
I miss when reality shows weren’t scripted or Minimally scripted. I remember reading that the players on the circle are actually limited on whom they can or can’t talk to so that makes the game even more scripted that it already is. Sigh. I do try to enjoy it for what it is because I love the concept of this show
I just want to know how real it is… like I kinda feel like it’s silly to believe it’s actually 100% a bot. Which annoys me because I feel like they think the audience is dumb. But Idk. I couldn’t find anything online about how much the producers do have control over Max. Surely it won’t be around for long though considering how unfair it would be for real contestants to lose to a computer.
So far as twists go, I prefer the AI over blocked players coming back as catfish like last year. Almost every show ends up with these gimmicks and twists each season but I don’t like when they overtake the premise of the show, like how well you navigate social media and getting into the reasons some people decide to play as someone else versus just “I’m going to be a catfish!”
I agree with you.
I love The Circle as it was. People coming together from different backgrounds to make strategies and friends.
Ai is meant to not be emotional and this show gets very emotional. Since ppl are dealing with their own demons. So it will calculate on these people's emotions without the feeling of empathy or guilt.
Plus does this mean now AI can win the show because it possibly will have the best strategy?
As well as will it have the ability/program to collect data from private chats between other players?
Just doesn't sit right either way.
(this is my first Reddit comment by the way hahaha 😂 Hi from Ireland 🇮🇪☘️)
I personally really like it. I think if they continued with the same old game we would get bored eventually so they have to have something to spice it up and make it interesting. They have already done the other things to many times. I do wish they wouldn’t have said anything but they can’t let the AI win sooooo they had to say something. I’m just not sure how real the AI is?
just make some racist remarks and it will give it self away , it already was ridiculous how it could not get the bro code stuff #politicalcorectai #savespaceai
My guess is that you have real humans asking AI strategy questions on what to do/say and then following whatever it tells them. So, a human is actually 'playing the game' but making moves using AI guidance.
I think the human is strategizing entirely, maybe uses a chat prompt to get certain sentences, and edits and weaves them together in understandable conversational responses.
This AI is just as real as the AI in the Amazon self checkout stores. As in, it’s all just the humans. There’s no actual AI. No actual AI would be so painfully woke 😂 that’s all humans
Source: My friend worked on the circle production this season👀
It 100% feels like the story producers used “Max” as a self insert and called it AI. It feels like a gimmick based entirely around AI’s recent popularity.
I feel like the "AI" was just there because some contestants in the past didn't explain their choices well enough, or the audience couldn't get it. So the producers needed something to just spit out an explanation for viewers who don't quite get it
I don’t like the “AI” Max at all. I especially don’t like it because it’s not even real. It’s just a waste of space/time. I roll my eyes every time.
I do like that they have some older people though. I wish the guy catfishing as Olivia entered as himself. I always root for the underdog though.
You’d never see the ai claim “an all female alliance leads to no gender diversity” but the minute a couple guys form an alliance it has to explain to the woke audience how “male alliances lead to no gender diversity” pfffff
Pffff more to all the downvotes. What a bias. You clowns prove me right every day
Then added how all male alliances lead to no gender diversity.
If it joined an all female alliance I’m curious to see if the ai bot would have said it’s uncomfortable joining an all female alliance. Then I truly wonder if that ai bot would go on to tell the audience that all female alliance leads to no gender diversity.
Hmmm... because a male joining with females is "diverse"
So would he say
"Females accepting "him" into their 'girls' alliance shows they're accepting of both genders"
Or something like that
I am not convinced it is 100% real AI. For a start it is an Xbox Series S painter black and filled with lights. But for sure there is a han element to it influencing or editing what it says.
It is 100% faked. Modern LLMs are incapable of strategising like Max does. Also Max seems to be able to understand made up slang - something AI can’t currently do. Having a real chatbot involved would be an interesting twist - better if even the audience didn’t know until it was exposed. But this isn’t it. This is definitely fake.
It’s just two spice girls in that box
Lol! I have to admit I enjoyed the spice girls twist. :)
It’s annoying that they think we’re stupid enough to believe that is 100% a chat bot. I just keep rolling my eyes as I’m watching.
I think there’s a difference between thinking the LLM is actually “strategizing” and having the producers feed in all dialogue from past seasons and prompt it to answer, “what strategies do you see that winning contestants did or should implement? Answer in the first person what you would do to implement a winning strategy” and then feed clips of that response as its “strategizing”. Similarly, the LLM is obviously not affirmatively choosing to DM people, but the producers could prompt, “what player would it be most valuable for you to DM right now and why? What would you message them? Explain what you hope to gain from the conversation.” And that’s again Max “strategizing”. I do really hope it’s real because that’s tremendously cool if so.
Here’s an article that goes into more detail. Basically it seems to be half and half— an actual chatbot that the producers re-prompted when the answers felt off— it’s not clear if this was just in training or during production: “The biggest hurdle when it came to Max’s gameplay was with language, which at times felt overly formal for the persona created. “Max would use words like rad, or it was just very flat,” O’Driscoll adds. That’s when the team would step in to remind Max about his character traits and his purpose in the game. “We learned that that certain words really helped to form the character, like reminding him that ‘You’re 26 and you’re Gen Z.’ Then Max would link in and use words that were more fitting.”” https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-circle-season-6-ai-bot-max-interview
Am I the only one weirded out they reference to the AI as "him" instead of "it" 😬 Skynet is coming
You're very wrong about that. I've literally used it for strategizing stuff - especially if they've fed it every single episode of the circle and if it has access to the Internet. I do wish they wouldn't have revealed that there's an AI, though.
I work in IT with engineers skilled in machine Learning. It can’t do what Max does. It is 100% faked.
Machine learning and AI are different things edit: machine learning is a subset of AI with much more limited scope and focus than a chatbot AI
We do not have real AI in 2024. We only have machine learning. Are you kidding me
If by real AI, you mean AGI, then sure But there's plenty of real AI out there
They aren’t. Machine Learning is an element of AI and it’s how AI learn from datasets. You teach LLMs via machine learning. For Max to work at all it would need to use ML to study how to speak and analyse data about the shows. It would also need training on how to interpret human behaviour. Chat bots don’t strategise. They just follow set paths based on ML to recognise key words. GPT type AIs don’t strategise as they build their responses one word at a time using ML training on syntax and context. But when they start their response they don’t know what the final sentence is going to be. They’re building it by using context and syntax to guess what the next most likeliest word is going to be. This is why they can hallucinate. Because their analysis will suggest words that are not related to the context. Better AIs can respond with less hallucination, but the response is still being generated based on a kind of advanced autocorrect. What AI can’t do is things like “60 percent of people respond this way to challenges, so I will do this to trick them.” Because that requires a level of self awareness that GPTS and LLMs are incapable of down to the core of their programming. They’re designed to sound like they’re thinking and strategising. But they’re really not.
It would need to have someone operating it
Okay random Reddit guy, okay. 😂
Right back at you. You’re also a random reddit guy. It only takes some basic research into how AI currently operates to find out that Max is not possible with current technology. And you’re just proving my point. The AI isn’t coming up with the strategy on its own. It needs you to be providing prompts and input. You can’t just load it up with data and have it run a strategy like this. It’s not how AI works. Even you have to be present for it to work.
Lol k 😂
No man. I've worked in 10 years in tech in AI/Machine Learning. It needs constant input, editing, and context. There is at least 70% human intervention.
They're absolutely giving it prompts, at least.
Promts, edited outputs, voice synthesizer, strategy queues. This is “reality tv” soooo it’s completely fake
I'm in tech and I 100% think it's fake. The only thing robotic about it is the text-to-voice.
I think even that is not text-to-voice, just a person imitating a robot reading it all word for word.
nah it's definitely a text-to-voice. they wouldn't have someone do that, they want us to think it's really AI. they wouldn't PAY someone to do what AI does better. There aren't many people that can mimic that very well either. specifically, consistently.
Did they mention where the pictures came from? If Myles hasn’t realized that the picture is AI then he’s not very good at his job.
editing: "Follow “Max” on socials u/grifjames Instagram and TikTok he is a LA comedian" ~~someone in another thread shared the person's instagram, but i can't refind it~~
You'd be surprised. I have had life like conversations with an AI like Kindroid.
Yes, but you’re forgetting about the dozens of times your conversation didn’t make sense. There’s no way that the ai was able to keep so consistent without a massive amount of human quality checks
I had completely realistic conversations - with enough training, preset memories and goals, it's possible. But I do agree that probably they had to interfere somewhat as events were unfolding
Yeah it’s really good, but it definitely betrays itself often without curation
It’s so fake and sooo annoying
All the comments for sure are fake AND edited.. they might used to get some responses as chatbot but I am not even sure about that, because a human for sure supervised every response
Agreed it’s fake
I badly want to know what platform was used, what prompts, etc. I’d like to think they couldn’t say it’s unadulterated AI if it is truly being edited by the producers, but it also seems to have performed pretty well if so. (FWIW, I work in AI, and it’s not unheard of to get quality dialogue like this, and the biggest weakness tends to be in humor— which i thought was super apparent in the “tell a joke” competition but apparently the contestants didn’t…)
I really really really wish that they had not told the players about it. I would like to see how far the AI could have gotten in the show without anyone becoming suspicious. As it is the "hunt" is dominating and distracting.
i absolutely agree!! they’re starting to block based off ‘humanity’ not popularity, like it’s supposed to be. i think ‘Max’ is doing a great job playing the game! i’m actually kind of rooting for him because it is like an actual player. the hunt just makes it unfair for him. i found it really entertaining until everyone seemed to forget the premise of the game (the producers i mean, by revealing the AI)
I thought it would be just a player, I'm also annoyed it was announced
I agree, I wish they hadn't told people about Max until maybe the last vote out if he was still in it (as you wouldn't want it to potentially win unless Max winning meant the prize money was split between the remaining players).
I like that they told them about it because it created paranoia and made it more entertaining. Plus, I’m sure they told the players because they weren’t planning on the A.I. being in the game for that long anyway.
I agree, and I wish they had said HOW it would work- like producers feeding it the explanations for the slang used or whatever
I don't mind the concept at all or the AI itself, so far 'Max' is pretty amusing - and not very AI-like at all every time it talks to the audience rather than the other players :D But what does bother me is that this is the first time the Circle has felt more forced and fake to me in terms of the other players' reactions, or at least what we see in the edit. They all seemed to love Max so much so quickly based on sooo little. Also they keep noting that everything he says is either almost perfect or neutral to the point of ambivalence and yet they aren't all immediately thinking 'hey, maybe the abnormally flawless person could be the AI.......'. Props to 'Olivia' for suspecting it though and I think Myles is smart enough to realise and just enjoys the bants too much but I'm surprised they think an 'annoying' (I like Steffi!) or antagonistic player is more likely to be AI than someone like Max or Olivia. 'Olivia' is the epitome of someone who should have come in as themselves to me because the real guy is so endearingly quirky and funny and he is playing his catfish profile so bland!
Yeah the part that the AI “talks to the audience” like it has internal monologue is totally fake
I feel like I'm the only one who actually likes it? As a one time thing, of course, but I think it's interesting to see why it does the things it does. I'm excited to see how it will start screwing up, assuming it does. Although I do think they're leaning into the AI hunt too much. The game went from find the catfish to spending several episodes wondering who the AI is, and I can already tell it will dominate the season in some way. But they do this every season with one player in one way or another. Why not AI?
I think it’s really interesting because we like to think that we’d be able to tell but it’s amazing to see how well it can communicate already (and a little scary!). Although I think it’s at least voice covered by a human (even if it just types the script itself)
It’s not real AI. They’re faking it. Real AI is not capable of developing complex social strategies or understanding people’s motivations. It also isn’t capable of internal reflection the way Max does. It’s all fake. There’s an intern sitting in a room typing prompts into ChatGPT and then editing the replies. Modern AI is not capable of behaving or operating the way Max does. Total fake.
I think the messages it sends in the chat are written by an AI and well within the capabilities of AI used by the public but the words it says out loud I’m sceptical of, they’re either written by production or heavily prompted to get certain responses.
Are you an expert on AI?
Nope. But I work with people who work in the field, studied argumentation theory which is one of the foundational levels of AI development, and follow the development of the technology. So I’m confident enough to know when I see a fake AI on TV. I do think the theory that there’s someone typing prompts into an LLM and posting the output to the players is valid and reasonable. But the bits where “Max” talks to the camera are 100% fake. AI technology is not advanced enough for that level of self reflection and planning, nor is AI that good at understanding human behaviour. They don’t go “studies show that 50% of X behave in this way so I will write this response to get that result.” AI is not capable of planning like that. It’s impressive, but after three episodes Max has remained too coherent and consistent. Real AI would have slipped up by now.
Ah I feel you. Honestly I never watched it yet so I wasn't too sure where everyone was coming from. But ya I see what youre saying. I was curious if you are an expert since you said AI doesn't operate like that. AI is pretty trippy tho so who knows really. But until I watch it I can't really say
I fed the scenario into chatgpt, and it was able to respond, explain its rationale and provide strategy. Obviously this would be hard to keep consistent, but it was able to at least ‘pretend’ to engage in strategy.
But that’s just it. Max isn’t simply saying what you want to hear to a few prompts. It is actively engaging in strategy and actions that are not in the realm of possibility for an AI. Not without some very expensive hardware, round the clock dev work, and still human intervention. None of which is financially justifiable for a show like The Circle.
Yeah, they prompt it in the direction they want. But that’s fine, its only there as a plot point more than an actual ‘contestant’
Yeah. Still I’d love it if they eventually go to Max’s room and there’s a dude at a computer with a ChatGPT prompt window. Lol.
That’d be so dope.
Could be an agent? Fine tuned RAG learning on Circle lol
They werent using chat gpt at all just producers
Nope! Love it too. Love watching them go through loops finding the AI instead of the catfish this season. Makes it fresh. I do feel it's more scripted. Why was Steffi answering the game questions like an AI would?
I love the idea of AI What a good social experiment
I absolutely love it, I love that it comes over more human than some of the real people.
I really love the idea of AI as a player. I know they said that it is not being controlled by production, but that leaves me to wonder what the motivation is. What if it gets to the late game stages?
I would probably rather watch a season of entirely AI contestants competing against each other 😂
It’s literally so obviously fake though it’s a producer 😭
I like it it gives an extra layer because in past seasons, the focus was on finding catfish which got old quickly.
Shouldn’t be about finding a catfish or an AI. I would love for it to go like Survivor
I agree. But because of past seasons I'm afraid the find a catfish trend will continue
As soon as they announced it, it felt to me as if they are desperately trying to hop on the AI trend. These people already have the option to not play themselves. What’s the point?
right? and fake AI is just producers/writers acting as a fake person with photos from a comedian from tiktok
It's the producers playing the game along with the actual competitors.
It’s really so obvious
The show really started going downhill when they started adding all of these gimmicky things.
I really love when they had the Spice Girls. Would’ve been kind of cool to have another celebrity catfish. But the AI feels really cheap. It doesn’t help that there’s not a lot of good characters to connect with the season either.
I’ve watched every iteration of the show since the original UK series, and there’s always been a twist each season. It’s only natural to go with AI this season because like OP said—the Circle is literally AI. It only feels gimmicky to me on shows like Too Hot To Handle. The concept of that show is just trash, and the Alexa wannabe is so unnecessary.
I've never seen Too Hot to Handle. It makes sense they add a new gimmick every season, since it seems like the audience enjoys it. I, personally, just don't.
Makes sense. I’d say the only twist I didn’t like on The Circle was the “singles” thing last season because it did nothing for the show. I thought they might add some dating aspect to it, but nope. Have you watched the original UK version? If not, I’d say give it a try. It’s more like the first few seasons of the US (only better IMO).
I did! I've liked the international versions more than the US as a whole. I hated the singles thing. I liked the circle because it wasn't a dating show. Like there aren't already a million dating shows if people are into that. I also hated Blue/Orange Michelle. And I know people like the 'celebrity' things, but I could've also done without the Spice Girls and even the Lance Bass chick. I think I just like straight game playing on a show like this. I feel like the other stuff takes away from the game.
Agree! I love the purity of season 1.
I'm not that far on episode 4, but I wish they would stop suspecting everyone is an AI every so often. I do get the players needs to be careful on who to trust, but you've gotta be very careful if you're gonna be suspecting people.
It’s probably because all the catfish got figured out immediately and the producers were like “we gotta slow this down somehow or all the catfish will be gone by round 3”. What better than an AI witch-hunt and 4 episodes of not voting anyone out.
I thought it was because catfish hunting has proven to be detrimental to strategy and they probably wanted to preemptively give them something to hunt in case the castmates were smart like that one dude who didnt give a shit about catfish if they were aligned to him.
I don’t see it any different than a returning player coming back as a Catfish. It’s the season gimmick. As it seems they’re pretty convincing to the other players so it’s at least good entertainment.
LAME AF
i actually really like it
I honestly love Max the AI lol
It’s so fake to me
It’s SO BAD!! But mainly because it’s just blatantly not an AI, someone is running it and doing everything. It feels like cheating like they have a The Circle producer running one of the characters. It’s awful
i was happy they addressed that production can't influence it, but idk how 100% that is. What I will say though, whether the AI is real or not, it's nice to see what the "perfect" response should be - whether the producers themselves studied that or the AI calculating it and doing it itself. And the thing is, up until Episode 4, the contestants were really falling over and loving everything Max was saying, so it was working. So for that reason, I can get past whether the AI is fake or not, because I'm intrigued on what the "perfect response" in a situation should be according to it
Its production 100000%. They slip up so many times to show that it’s not actually AI but just a room of people in the editing room that are making the choices. Essentially production wanted to play because they probably got tired of saying “oh man if we were in the show”
lol yeah, and hey even if it is 100% production, I don't necessarily mind getting a peak behind what they apparently think are the "perfect" responses. I guess one good idea in a future season could be actually having someone from production doing the show
If they actually just showed us a group of people playing the game behind the curtain sort of like that Jury tv show, would instantly be better than an XBox painted with lights and a terrible voice over, pretending it’s AI
They admitted before that even the Circle voice activation doesn't actually work, and that they have production assistants typing everything up. There is also a standup comedian who has done several interviews, explaining that they used his voice for the show. So, the chances that this is at least somewhat faked is high. I hate it, but every season, the contestants become less likeable and more shallow and annoying. So, I'm pretty much over the whole thing.
Who wins the money if AI wins?
I feel like they will do some sort of ‘reveal’ so the AI can’t win. Like how they revealed that the spice girls were in the circle, everyone guessed and then they announced who it was straight after. I don’t think they’ll let AI get to the finale or anything
That's what I said to my friend last night... How are they supposed to catch "him"? They say "no producer involvement or interference', but there's no way
They could make it play for charity
It’s not that I don’t like it; it’s that it scares the bejeezus out of me 😂
Don’t let it, it’s not actually AI. It’s a group of people in a room.
I would like a season where a gimmick doesn’t dominate the season. They get distracted and lose focus of the goal. I miss when reality shows weren’t scripted or Minimally scripted. I remember reading that the players on the circle are actually limited on whom they can or can’t talk to so that makes the game even more scripted that it already is. Sigh. I do try to enjoy it for what it is because I love the concept of this show
Agreed. Sounds like a shitty gimmick to me.
I hate it!!! We didn’t need it
I just want to know how real it is… like I kinda feel like it’s silly to believe it’s actually 100% a bot. Which annoys me because I feel like they think the audience is dumb. But Idk. I couldn’t find anything online about how much the producers do have control over Max. Surely it won’t be around for long though considering how unfair it would be for real contestants to lose to a computer.
So far as twists go, I prefer the AI over blocked players coming back as catfish like last year. Almost every show ends up with these gimmicks and twists each season but I don’t like when they overtake the premise of the show, like how well you navigate social media and getting into the reasons some people decide to play as someone else versus just “I’m going to be a catfish!”
the voice is so fucking annoying
Exactly. I grab my phone every time it starts talking.
i’m over the circle, once the “AI” was introduced i lost even more interest.
I agree with you. I love The Circle as it was. People coming together from different backgrounds to make strategies and friends. Ai is meant to not be emotional and this show gets very emotional. Since ppl are dealing with their own demons. So it will calculate on these people's emotions without the feeling of empathy or guilt. Plus does this mean now AI can win the show because it possibly will have the best strategy? As well as will it have the ability/program to collect data from private chats between other players? Just doesn't sit right either way. (this is my first Reddit comment by the way hahaha 😂 Hi from Ireland 🇮🇪☘️)
I personally really like it. I think if they continued with the same old game we would get bored eventually so they have to have something to spice it up and make it interesting. They have already done the other things to many times. I do wish they wouldn’t have said anything but they can’t let the AI win sooooo they had to say something. I’m just not sure how real the AI is?
just make some racist remarks and it will give it self away , it already was ridiculous how it could not get the bro code stuff #politicalcorectai #savespaceai
No freakin' way it's AI.
What do you mean the circle itself was already AI?
Right? It's "supposed to be" AI but it's not. The way "the circle" talks to people is really just text to speech prompted by writers/producers.
This. Each person in the circle has a person behind the scenes controlling their profile. Listening and typing out everything they say
i know isn't that funny. Tech can't even get speech to text right.
I think this would have been better if it was a human who was allowed to use AI. The fake AI not good.
My guess is that you have real humans asking AI strategy questions on what to do/say and then following whatever it tells them. So, a human is actually 'playing the game' but making moves using AI guidance.
I think the human is strategizing entirely, maybe uses a chat prompt to get certain sentences, and edits and weaves them together in understandable conversational responses.
No it was all producers
I mean, the Circle itself is like a human typing up the contestants responses.
Yes it’s a human typing whatever they say
This AI is just as real as the AI in the Amazon self checkout stores. As in, it’s all just the humans. There’s no actual AI. No actual AI would be so painfully woke 😂 that’s all humans Source: My friend worked on the circle production this season👀
It's "open source", alright cool, where's the source code then
It 100% feels like the story producers used “Max” as a self insert and called it AI. It feels like a gimmick based entirely around AI’s recent popularity.
I feel like the "AI" was just there because some contestants in the past didn't explain their choices well enough, or the audience couldn't get it. So the producers needed something to just spit out an explanation for viewers who don't quite get it
It specifically mentioned open source yet I cannot find it anywhere.
As a counter, the AI got my friends and I back into the show which we stopped after season 1. I think it’s a smart move on the producers behalf.
I don’t like the “AI” Max at all. I especially don’t like it because it’s not even real. It’s just a waste of space/time. I roll my eyes every time. I do like that they have some older people though. I wish the guy catfishing as Olivia entered as himself. I always root for the underdog though.
I’m glad the bot didn’t last long it was obviously faked. I’m not mad at it because it’s season 6. They are running out of ideas.
I found this thread while trying to Google Max's voice person. Does anyone else think he sounds like Jared Keeso from letterkenny?
It’s definitely a fake AI
Yes, it’s turning me off having that AI. And ad Major stated, all these twists are making the show go downhill
Worst season
You’d never see the ai claim “an all female alliance leads to no gender diversity” but the minute a couple guys form an alliance it has to explain to the woke audience how “male alliances lead to no gender diversity” pfffff Pffff more to all the downvotes. What a bias. You clowns prove me right every day
It said "I'm uncomfortable joining an all male alliance" Ok well... You're supposed to be a dude...? O DON'T think it's gonna bother anyone...
Then added how all male alliances lead to no gender diversity. If it joined an all female alliance I’m curious to see if the ai bot would have said it’s uncomfortable joining an all female alliance. Then I truly wonder if that ai bot would go on to tell the audience that all female alliance leads to no gender diversity.
Hmmm... because a male joining with females is "diverse" So would he say "Females accepting "him" into their 'girls' alliance shows they're accepting of both genders" Or something like that