An AI Player Is Fooling the Humans on ‘The Circle.’ God Help Us All

When I first learned that an AI chatbot was joining The Circle for Season 6, I wasn’t exactly worried for the human players. We’ve heard plenty about how quickly this tech is progressing (too fast, some suggest), but my own occasional experiences with AI have mostly left me underwhelmed. For instance: A few weeks ago, when I wrapped up a blog post dream-casting Margot Robbie’s upcoming Sims movie, I asked ChatGPT to tell me who it would cast as Bella Goth. It chose Charlize Theron. I mean, I love her, but Charlize Theron? As Bella Goth?!

Suffice it to say that when The Circle Season 6 debuted Wednesday on Netflix with its robo-character, “Max,” I went in fully convinced that, while AI might be automating over more and more of our world, it still lacks a certain human touch. Foolishly, I thought that there was no way this tech twist would actually convince anyone. Alas, to err is human, and when I binged the first four episodes, I was shocked to discover that the damn chatbot was totally flying under the radar.

Circle, message: How the hell could this be?!

As excited as executive producer Niall O’Driscoll and showrunner/executive producer Susan House were about the AI’s potential, even they found themselves caught off guard by how well “Max” performed in certain moments.

“We were very surprised how well he did, and how detailed his hashtags were, and how human he was,” House told The Daily Beast’s Obsessed in a recent interview. At the same time, she said, it was also “reassuring for the human race” to see that over the course of a few episodes, the chatbot “missed a lot of nuances.”

As a social-strategy competition show that’s always coming up with new, game-changing gimmicks, it feels fitting that The Circle would introduce an AI player. O’Driscoll told me that the show’s creators have been flirting with the idea of an AI character since the show launched in 2020. It wasn’t until recently, however, that it seemed possible to pull off in reality. With this season’s premiere, the AI revolution has officially come to reality TV.

The logistics behind Max were simple. The producers asked open-source AI technology to dream up a profile it thought could win the Circle, and then gave it a directive to play and respond as that character.

As “Max” explains in the show’s second episode, “he” decided to play as a 26-year-old veterinarian intern-slash-guy-next-door type because he thought that would maximize his chances of building strong connections among the players. Why that age? Because, according to Max, a 26-year-old “can leverage life experience and maturity while still playing youthful and having position flexibility.” (Position what?) The AI even included a dog in its profile picture, as “studies show photos with dogs receive 38% more likes on social media.” The producers said that the chatbot came up with every detail, down to the adorable dog’s name, “Pippa.”

Whenever a player sent Max a message, O’Driscoll said, the producers would enter that response into the AI chat and ask how it wanted to reply. “The more you used it, and the more you trained it as that character, the better it got at creating the right kind of language and the right kind of terminology that fit that character,” he said. And as for the voice we hear narrating Max’s thoughts? That, too, was AI-generated.

This season poses a fascinating question: Could AI, with its immense pattern recognition and zero empathy, become the ultimate catfish and manipulate its fellow players? Or would its lack of humanity become its downfall?

It turned out that “Max’s” gameplay could be creepily effective. Sometimes, it exceeded even the producers’ expectations—like when Lauren, a 26-year-old Twitch streamer, used the hashtag #BippityBoppityBesties to describe her relationship with Max and the chatbot actually understood it.

At first when he saw the multi-layered hashtag, O’Driscoll thought Max was done for. But when he asked the chatbot later if it could explain the hashtag, Max successfully identified the play on Cinderella. Throughout the game, Max repeated the reference during chats with Lauren, and when O’Driscoll asked why, it explained, “When you repeat a connection or a joke with someone, that helps make them like you more.”

Although Max clearly had some string-pulling skills on lock, the AI struggled to navigate more complex scenarios—like an Episode 4 group chat with “AI P.I.” Myles and Paul, who was actually a non-robotic catfish.

Myles had clearly hoped Max would help him grill Paul to determine if he was the AI (LOL—so close...), but instead of helping out, Max basically short-circuited and ducked out of the group after one lackluster message: “Myles, best of luck on your A.I. hunt you got this man. Catch ya later bros. #BroCourtDismissed.”

While the other two guys in the cat sat there scratching their heads, Max left the group chat and proclaimed, “Max’s joking sign-off maintained deception and ceased perilous discourse. Alliance preserved through passive disengagement.” But was it, really?

O’Driscoll believes that the moral code built into the AI system they used prevented Max from expressing negative or mean opinions. “He didn’t want to be that kind of character,” the EP said. But House offered another theory. Because Max’s study of past winners had shown they tended toward positivity, picking at other players might not have aligned with its strategy. Either way, House said, Max’s struggle in that chat seemed like an example of a nuanced situation that the AI couldn’t quite process.

Another thing that computers haven’t quite mastered yet? Flirting.

Throughout the season, Lauren tries flirting her way into an alliance with Max, but, as O’Driscoll pointed out, Max couldn’t choose whether to play along or lean into the “brother-sister” angle that some players develop over time. Once again, House offered another take.

“Isn’t that the ultimate flirt?” she countered. It’s like subversive flirting to say ‘we’re besties,’ but then...”

After thinking over other Circle alliances, like Kyle and Quori-Tyler this season, I had to admit she has a point—even if Q.T. was clearly all-in on Myles, a.k.a. “Yung Papi Fuego.”

Going into next week’s batch of episodes, Max is still in the game. But what does this performance mean for those of us who sometimes bite our nails while reading headlines about AI? Did the chatbot ultimately impress the producers enough to leave them existentially plagued, or is there still hope for us humans after all?

While both producers were astounded by the AI’s performance, House also came away feeling relieved that the robots cannot (yet) do everything. “It can’t get the nuance of human emotion,” she said, adding, “It can’t compete with human emotional intelligence.”

In excellent news for Real Housewives everywhere, O’Driscoll put it another way. “I don’t think our future reality stars have anything to worry about,” he said. “They’re not going anywhere.”