Here is a link to an conversation with Chat-GPT where I asked it to write a continuity link voiceover script for an imaginary TV channel. I started off with a simple prompt for a 60 word now/next link, using raw title & synopsis data scraped from an EPG feed.

It was inevitably clumsy at first. However, with a few guidelines iterated into the prompt, it turns out that an AI can have a decent attempt at continuity voiceover, in multiple languages. (I’d be interested if any native French, Spanish, German, Swedish or Mandarin speakers can read the links and tell me if they feel natural or otherwise…)

Those guidelines were: specify a target reading age, tell the AI not to quote channel or programme names and focus instead on content and character, ask it to write like a movie trailer, require a tone appropriate to the channel, and make it stay subtle by avoiding direct promotions and calls to action.

This is not going to realise Elon’s fever dream and everywhere replace the art of writing clever links. That said, it could definitely bring spoken continuity to channels where the economics do not presently stack up.

If you’re interested in having your own automated continuity machine, I would be extremely happy to demonstrate the After Effects data-to-graphics factory I have built that does exactly that (and it does the voices, too).