Jason Hellerman reports on No Film School that AI Says My Screenplay is Better Than ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘Schindler’s List’.

He begins, “This morning, a really lovely NFS reader reached out to me and wanted my opinion on a program called ScriptReader.AI, which charges $10 for a complete screenplay breakdown.”

He uploads one of his scripts and in two hours gets extensive coverage. It appears the AI’s method is to rate each scene and then average the scores. His script gets a “Recommend.”

However, Jason is not impressed. He concludes:

“Computers cannot think and feel. They have zero sense of nuance. And you cannot take their coverage seriously. No matter how nice it is. AI coverage is worthless!”

My take: the ScriptReader.ai website woefully undersells its capabilities. It certainly looks sketchy. But you can test out three scenes for free.

And then there’s a link in the top right corner of the website labelled “SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?_” I recognized this as a reference to WarGames in which Matthew Broderick unwittingly provokes WWIII.

With some trepidation, I clicked on the link.

This brought me to a page titled “SceneProv_” with two modes, Fun and Training.

I decided to have some fun and generate a scene for a RomCom. The AI, suddenly my writing partner, set the scene and populated it with two characters. My interactions are bolded.

“Genre selected: romance

INT. COFFEE SHOP – DAY

JEN sits at a table with a book, sipping on her latte. She notices AIDEN walk in and their eyes meet.

JEN:
(smiling)
Hey!

AIDEN:
(nervously)
Hi! Can I sit here?

JEN:
(surprised)
Uh, sure!

AIDEN sits across from Jen and they strike up a conversation.

AIDEN:
I noticed you’re reading “Do Androids Dream of Sheep?”.

JEN:
Yup. It’s my favourite book.

Her eyes glitch.

AIDEN:
Do you want to go back to my place?

JEN:
(surprised)
Excuse me?

AIDEN:
(smiling)
Not like that. I have a first edition copy of that book. I’d love to show it to you.

JEN:
(relieved)
Oh, sure. That sounds great.

INT. AIDEN’S PLACE – NIGHT

Aiden and Jen are sitting on the couch, looking at the first edition. Her eyes glitch again.

AIDEN
Jen, why do your eyes “glitch?”

JEN
What do you mean?

AIDEN
Well, every once in a while they kinda spark.
Are you hiding something from me?

Jen looks at Aiden angrily and stands up quickly.

JEN:
(angrily)
No, I’m not hiding anything! It’s just a glitch in my synthetic retinas. I’m an android.

AIDEN:
(surprised)
An android? I had no idea.

JEN:
(sadly)
I know, it’s not exactly a desirable trait in the dating world.

AIDEN:
(smiling)
Well, I’m not like most guys. I think it’s pretty cool, to be honest.

Jen’s eyes glitch again, this time in surprise.

JEN:
(surprised)
Really?

AIDEN:
(nodding)
Really. Plus, I always thought I’d make a great cyborg myself.

Jen smiles and takes Aiden’s hand, feeling grateful for the first time to have found someone who accepts her for who she really is.

They continue to look at the book, their fingers touching.

Aiden turns to Jen, looking into her eyes.

AIDEN:
(softly)
You know, I may not be able to dream like you do, but
I have a feeling this is the beginning of something special.

JEN:
(smiling)
I have that feeling, too.

They lean in and share a kiss, the start of their unconventional love story.”

And then it rated “our” scene a B+. This AI passes the Turing Test for sure.