'Hasn't worked in TV that long': Russell T Davies savages BBC boss over 'clumsy' AI 'Doctor Who' praise
Matt Brittin, the BBC's new director general, who admitted he "got into trouble" at a staff meeting after praising an AI-generated Doctor Who episode as "pretty good.Ncuti Gatwa as Doctor Who, a role Russell T Davies warned AI threatens — Davies condemned the BBC chief's praise of a fully AI-generated 50-minute episode as "clumsy.
Russell T Davies has publicly rounded on BBC director-general Matt Brittin after Brittin told a Royal Television Society conference in September that an unofficial AI-generated episode of 'Doctor Who' was "pretty good." Davies, speaking on BBC Radio 4's 'The Media Show', called the remark "clumsy" and warned that writers and artists are "the first to take the blow" from AI. Brittin has since admitted he "got into trouble" for the comments, insisting he believes in human creativity.
Davies suggested Brittin, a former Google executive who joined the BBC in March 2026, "hasn't worked in television for that long and might not be so fruity with an opinion in future."
Davies revealed the backlash was instant: "My inbox went ping ping ping ping ping, so God knows what his was like."
Davies also said he finds it "shocking" that some writers use AI for first drafts, asking: "What are you paid for otherwise?"
