This looks rough now but I wonder what A.I. soaps will look, sound like in a few years.

Should the soap industry worry about this?

I think this is an interesting gray area. I think there are several approaches that I can see happening with A.I. in the arena of soap opera.

I believe one of the European soaps out of the Netherlands or Germany has already started, or discussed the possibility, of using A.I. actors for the extras. In the states, I think the shows have started using them for some of the establishing shots. It's rough, but I do think that they could get smoother and, honestly, probably develop a more accurate feel of the community if theycontinued to use the technology to enhance the environs.

I could definitely see if micro soaps continue to pick up more steam with a production company using it to pump out content at a quick rate to appeal to viewer demand. I watched some of one show earlier this fall and it wasn't terribly good, but with a bit of tweaking, it was definitely could have been something of value. For this, I could see the A.I. being used also to write the shows and not just create the visuals.

The area that I'm most interested in this would be the fan developed content. When I found my way into the Internet soap community in the summer 1998, there was already a burgeoning fandom for fan generated original content, not so much fan fiction but brand new soap opera by fans of the genre. The amount of time and energy those fans put into those shows from plotting, writing, designing websites, and interacting with their fans was amazing. I think using this tech to revitalize that community by creating unique content that it created with original, or A.I. influenced rather than A.I. generated, story is possible.

The last area, which I think has been discussed in other places, is how it could be used to take old content and recreate the audio and visual.

I do think there would be something lost if we end up with only A.I. generated content. Actors make such interesting choices and writers explore such facets that I'm not sure A.I. would ever or could ever do, but maybe I'm wrong. I do think from a writer's perspective, having control on how an actor plays a scene could become appealing.

Not sure if this was really the response you were looking for, but I figured I'd engage.

7 hours ago, dc11786 said:

I think this is an interesting gray area. I think there are several approaches that I can see happening with A.I. in the arena of soap opera.

I believe one of the European soaps out of the Netherlands or Germany has already started, or discussed the possibility, of using A.I. actors for the extras. In the states, I think the shows have started using them for some of the establishing shots. It's rough, but I do think that they could get smoother and, honestly, probably develop a more accurate feel of the community if theycontinued to use the technology to enhance the environs.

I could definitely see if micro soaps continue to pick up more steam with a production company using it to pump out content at a quick rate to appeal to viewer demand. I watched some of one show earlier this fall and it wasn't terribly good, but with a bit of tweaking, it was definitely could have been something of value. For this, I could see the A.I. being used also to write the shows and not just create the visuals.

The area that I'm most interested in this would be the fan developed content. When I found my way into the Internet soap community in the summer 1998, there was already a burgeoning fandom for fan generated original content, not so much fan fiction but brand new soap opera by fans of the genre. The amount of time and energy those fans put into those shows from plotting, writing, designing websites, and interacting with their fans was amazing. I think using this tech to revitalize that community by creating unique content that it created with original, or A.I. influenced rather than A.I. generated, story is possible.

The last area, which I think has been discussed in other places, is how it could be used to take old content and recreate the audio and visual.

I do think there would be something lost if we end up with only A.I. generated content. Actors make such interesting choices and writers explore such facets that I'm not sure A.I. would ever or could ever do, but maybe I'm wrong. I do think from a writer's perspective, having control on how an actor plays a scene could become appealing.

Not sure if this was really the response you were looking for, but I figured I'd engage.

The German soap opera “unter uns” used AI for flashback scenes (newly created) with the original cast member Christiane Maybach (Margot Weigel) that died in 2006 to introduce some new family members. It was weird

On 1/9/2026 at 8:53 PM, DramatistDreamer said:

This looks rough now but I wonder what A.I. soaps will look, sound like in a few years.

Should the soap industry worry about this

On 1/9/2026 at 8:53 PM, DramatistDreamer said:

This looks rough now but I wonder what A.I. soaps will look, sound like in a few years.

Should the soap industry worry about this?

Some aussies have created a new “radio” “audio” soap and are on episode 58 by now. I think audio soaps are a better way to go with this than AI soaps