On Wednesday, BBC Maestro — a similar service to Masterclass — launched a new writing course taught by the best-selling novelist of all time. There’s a catch: the author, genre-defining mystery writer Agatha Christie, died 50 years ago, and was thus unavailable to participate.
Instead, BBC Maestro used an actress and artificial intelligence to recreate Christie, drawing from the author’s own novels, interviews, and letters for the course material. The creators describe the effort as a “world-first,” and the “Agatha Christie On Writing” masterclass is available now.
Almost as soon as the course launched, critics accused the BBC of making an Agatha Christie “deepfake.”
Meanwhile, BBC Maestro wants to emphasize the participation of the Christie estate and their high esteem for the late author.
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