Remember when Maya Hawke said casting directors were making their decisions based on “the amount of collective followers” a group of actors had on Instagram? That strategy seems almost quaint compared to what’s apparently going on now. A new Variety report claims that some agents and managers have started using AI tools like Grok and ChatGPT to analyze their clients’ popularity. It’s not necessarily surprising considering the ways AI has seeped into almost every aspect of the industry, but it still feels like something ripped from that “Nosedive” episode of Black Mirror.  

The report uses Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who recently appeared in Prime Video’s Heads Of State, as an example. Chopra Jonas’ reps apparently used Grok and ChatGPT to analyze online reactions to the film and found that their client generated 50% to 60% of the movie’s buzz, while co-leads John Cena and Idris Elba only accounted for 20% to 25% respectively. If you’re wondering how Chopra Jonas’ team generated those numbers, the trade attributes them to “volume,” “headlines,” and something it calls “quoting intensity.” It doesn’t really sound like an exact science to this writer, but Chopra Jonas’ manager Anjula Acharia sees it differently. “I don’t think she would normally be credited for [the film’s success] because she’s not the lead. She’s not a ‘head of state.’ But in this case, the data doesn’t lie,” she said. 

Acharia isn’t the only agent using AI as proof of their clients’ ability to sell a film. Multiple reps have apparently adopted the technology as a way to get around the black box streamers tend to keep their viewership data locked up in. Variety claims these streamers have also been using AI data for “at least two years… in their bid to assess who and what has value.” “You can really see where the cultural heat is building, and it gives you that data really fast,” Acharia commented. The report does allow that this data can be manipulated by buying bots or otherwise, but claims that advances in the technology also make fake buzz easier to spot than ever.

Of course, AI technology can also be manipulated by outside forces such as, for example, its owners. It makes sense that managers and agents would want to beat the streamers at their own game, but it’s equally troubling to put the future of film casting in the hands of a bot that once dubbed itself MechaHitler.