Agatha Christie’s Ghostly Comeback: AI Revives Her for BBC Writing Class

Agatha Christie, the British queen of murder mystery novels who died in 1976, is back — sort of — teaching a BBC Maestro writing course for aspiring authors, according to the New York Times. Using artificial intelligence to craft a “digital prosthetic” over an actor’s performance, a team of academics scripted the class from Christie’s own words, pulled from her writings and old interviews. For the bargain price of $89, fans can learn her craft, but this high-tech resurrection is stirring up a storm.

Agatha Christie Ltd., which manages the literary and media rights to the author's works, is led by her great-grandson James Prichard, who gave the green light, insisting only her words be used. “We’re not speaking for her,” Prichard told the NY Times, “We are collecting what she said and putting it out in a digestible and shareable format.”

The course — unlike AI-generated stunts like Anthony Bourdain’s 2021 voice or Drake's use of Tupac Shakur's AI-generated voice for a 2024 song (which he subsequently removed due to a cease-and-desist letter from Shakur's estate, as reported by Billboard) — avoids inventing viewpoints, aiming to share Christie’s tips in a digestible way.

Mark Aldridge’s academic team, who wrote the AI program, paraphrased Christie’s advice on writing, hoping to connect fans with her genius. BBC Maestro’s chief executive Michael Levine insisted, “We are not trying to pretend, in any way, that this is Agatha somehow brought to life,” per the NY Times, rather, it's just a “representation of Agatha to teach her own craft."

But University of Oxford's Carissa Véliz, associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute for Ethics in AI, calls it "extremely problematic," arguing Christie can't consent and the lifelike AI risks blurring reality, telling the NY Times:

“When you see someone who looks like Agatha Christie and talks like Agatha Christie, I think it’s easy for the boundaries to be blurred,” she said, adding, “What do we gain? Other than it being gimmicky?”

Britain’s artists also fret over copyright laws that might let AI train on their work without permission, though Christie’s estate sidesteps that hurdle.

With no copyright issues and the family’s blessing, the course is a go, but questions linger. Would Christie approve? “We hope,” Levine admitted, “but we don’t definitively know.”