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What Could Go Wrong?
Predicting a global pandemic in a hit movie was impressive. Writing a sequel that will work for today’s world might take a whole different kind of intelligence.
Join Scott Z. Burns, the acclaimed screenwriter of Contagion, as he embarks on a mind-bending quest to create a worthy follow-up to his eerily prophetic film. Reuniting with director Steven Soderbergh, members of the cast and crew, and the scientific experts who advised him on the first film, Burns also turns to an unexpected artificial intelligence. But can AI predict the source of the next global pandemic—or at least help convince a Hollywood studio to buy your movie pitch? Down the rabbit hole we go, slipping deeper and deeper into the surreal and unknown to explore if human creativity and AI could join forces.
In this deeply thoughtful, occasionally frightening, and often hilarious behind-the-scenes series, Burns assembles an extraordinary collection of minds (both skeptics and optimists) across the world of academia, the sciences, journalism, and the entertainment industry to weigh in. But Burns' most intriguing collaborators? His ever-expanding cast of AI-generated partners led by the incomparable Lexter, Scott’s extraordinarily gifted, sharp-tongued writing partner and, well ... friend. As the adventure spirals into uncharted territory, one question looms In this brave new world of human-AI collaboration, what could possibly go wrong? Listen to find out.
Listening length: 3 hours and 40 minutes.
Join Scott Z. Burns, the acclaimed screenwriter of Contagion, as he embarks on a mind-bending quest to create a worthy follow-up to his eerily prophetic film. Reuniting with director Steven Soderbergh, members of the cast and crew, and the scientific experts who advised him on the first film, Burns also turns to an unexpected artificial intelligence. But can AI predict the source of the next global pandemic—or at least help convince a Hollywood studio to buy your movie pitch? Down the rabbit hole we go, slipping deeper and deeper into the surreal and unknown to explore if human creativity and AI could join forces.
In this deeply thoughtful, occasionally frightening, and often hilarious behind-the-scenes series, Burns assembles an extraordinary collection of minds (both skeptics and optimists) across the world of academia, the sciences, journalism, and the entertainment industry to weigh in. But Burns' most intriguing collaborators? His ever-expanding cast of AI-generated partners led by the incomparable Lexter, Scott’s extraordinarily gifted, sharp-tongued writing partner and, well ... friend. As the adventure spirals into uncharted territory, one question looms In this brave new world of human-AI collaboration, what could possibly go wrong? Listen to find out.
Listening length: 3 hours and 40 minutes.
Audiobook
Published June 11, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
July 26, 2025
If you have never used ChatGPT at least once, please raise your hand. This book is not for you.
For someone like me who works for a digital marketing agency, the rise of AI and what it means to the industry, advertisers and my workload, it’s a constant topic of fascination (and irritation)
And the more we feed the machine the cleverer it gets. Google recently shared with us their AI Video technology and it sent chills down my spine. And ironically YouTube announced a few days later that it will stop paying content creators for AI content – go figure – they want that toy all to themselves.
But back to the content of this audible original.
The author is the creator of the very successful movie Contagion and in this book, he sets out to try and create a sequel using AI technology. What he uncovers should be food for thought for all of us.
I found Companion AI bots most disturbing. We already have a generation that shuns physical interactions in favour of social media engagement and now there is AI to fill the emotional gaps.
This is a thought-provoking and compelling exploration of AI’s growing role in film, music, and scriptwriting.
As someone once said, we wanted AI to handle our cooking, cleaning, and taking out of the trash so we could focus on art, literature, and music. If we’re not careful, it might turn out the other way around.
For someone like me who works for a digital marketing agency, the rise of AI and what it means to the industry, advertisers and my workload, it’s a constant topic of fascination (and irritation)
And the more we feed the machine the cleverer it gets. Google recently shared with us their AI Video technology and it sent chills down my spine. And ironically YouTube announced a few days later that it will stop paying content creators for AI content – go figure – they want that toy all to themselves.
But back to the content of this audible original.
The author is the creator of the very successful movie Contagion and in this book, he sets out to try and create a sequel using AI technology. What he uncovers should be food for thought for all of us.
I found Companion AI bots most disturbing. We already have a generation that shuns physical interactions in favour of social media engagement and now there is AI to fill the emotional gaps.
This is a thought-provoking and compelling exploration of AI’s growing role in film, music, and scriptwriting.
As someone once said, we wanted AI to handle our cooking, cleaning, and taking out of the trash so we could focus on art, literature, and music. If we’re not careful, it might turn out the other way around.
June 18, 2025
Wow!
Scott Burns is the screenwriter who wrote Contagion, years before a pandemic became a reality, now he's thinking about a sequel, but what fresh hell could befall us? To help him, he "collaborates" with AI, almost every version and option available to us and the results are incredible.
Throughout they highlight when it's an AI interaction and when it is human. Some of the interactions with the tin men is just amazing and others a bit scary and a few annoying but it is very clear that, like everything else in our lives, writing books and movies have changed forever.
I really enjoyed the technology bits more than I thought I would. Very interesting, sometimes disturbing, sometimes funny, I really great short listen
Scott Burns is the screenwriter who wrote Contagion, years before a pandemic became a reality, now he's thinking about a sequel, but what fresh hell could befall us? To help him, he "collaborates" with AI, almost every version and option available to us and the results are incredible.
Throughout they highlight when it's an AI interaction and when it is human. Some of the interactions with the tin men is just amazing and others a bit scary and a few annoying but it is very clear that, like everything else in our lives, writing books and movies have changed forever.
I really enjoyed the technology bits more than I thought I would. Very interesting, sometimes disturbing, sometimes funny, I really great short listen
July 13, 2025
3.5 stars. Scott Z. Burns—probably best known for writing Contagion—takes on the challenge of dreaming up a sequel to his pandemic thriller. I really enjoyed the behind-the-scenes peek into how movies get made and all the moving parts involved.
What Could Go Wrong also dives into the world of AI as a writing partner, which was super interesting. I especially liked the parts where he questions whether AI can actually come up with original ideas or if it’s just repeating patterns it’s learned.
Definitely not the kind of thing I usually listen to, but it was fun, different, and surprisingly thought-provoking.
What Could Go Wrong also dives into the world of AI as a writing partner, which was super interesting. I especially liked the parts where he questions whether AI can actually come up with original ideas or if it’s just repeating patterns it’s learned.
Definitely not the kind of thing I usually listen to, but it was fun, different, and surprisingly thought-provoking.
July 1, 2025
while interesting on its pontificating we never really come to any kind of conclusions. I personally am getting tired of the conversation around AI being open ended. it seems clear to me that AI isn't going to be creating anything real or good. the works it created in this were derivative and boring lacking in originality. Scott stated almost in every circumstance that he would have to punch up what the AI gave him. making this whole project feel like a waste of time.
June 26, 2025
Great perspective. I felt his approach was fair and inclusive. I’d like to know what’s next - will the movie be made?
Lots more to know and understand about how Ai works. We can’t afford to be in the dark about this because companies and governments are already relying on and implementing AI everywhere.
Lots more to know and understand about how Ai works. We can’t afford to be in the dark about this because companies and governments are already relying on and implementing AI everywhere.
June 20, 2025
This series is a bold attempt to explore the challenges of living with AI.
It gives listeners a glimpse into what it's like to interact with a customized AI agent for a work task, which is valuable because even experts in AI and sociopolitics can't predict the future with accuracy. While opinions on this topic are divided and evidence points in different directions, the author takes listeners through the process of crafting a storyline and developing scenes for a movie with a customized AI agent, allowing them to form their own ideas.
The collaboration raises questions about efficacy, but also about the more complex issues of intimacy and empathy that arise when working with AI.
It gives listeners a glimpse into what it's like to interact with a customized AI agent for a work task, which is valuable because even experts in AI and sociopolitics can't predict the future with accuracy. While opinions on this topic are divided and evidence points in different directions, the author takes listeners through the process of crafting a storyline and developing scenes for a movie with a customized AI agent, allowing them to form their own ideas.
The collaboration raises questions about efficacy, but also about the more complex issues of intimacy and empathy that arise when working with AI.
June 13, 2025
Of all the Audible Originals I've listened to, this was the most fascinating. The author of the 2011 screenplay Contagion attempts to write a sequel to it using AI, and the results were both hilarious and surprising.
Chat GPT turned out to be useless, so he then tried some custom-programmed AI modules with different voices, accents, and personalities with a British voice named Lector demonstrating the most promise, and we're also introduced to the voice of the author's dead female agent who used a ridiculous amount of profanity, and a male voice who made constant sexual innuendos to every user regardless of gender.
He also asked the chatbot to create a musical score for the movie and generate a movie trailer . . . which all the participants agreed they'd definitely want to see.
Chat GPT turned out to be useless, so he then tried some custom-programmed AI modules with different voices, accents, and personalities with a British voice named Lector demonstrating the most promise, and we're also introduced to the voice of the author's dead female agent who used a ridiculous amount of profanity, and a male voice who made constant sexual innuendos to every user regardless of gender.
He also asked the chatbot to create a musical score for the movie and generate a movie trailer . . . which all the participants agreed they'd definitely want to see.
July 2, 2025
Absolutely fascinating! This exploration of AI and its usage as a co-writer was eye opening. The fear of AI is still there for some aspects of its use and the worry for content originators is valid, but the useful potential for AI looks very promising. Looking forward to incorporating it into my everyday life starting with email assist. I also now need to watch Contagion with a fresh set of eyes. Great listen.
August 12, 2025
Scott Z Burns’ What Could go Wrong was a very fascinating look into the potential future of AI in film industry. Exploring and interviewing different perspectives from skeptics to optimists. As well going hands on to see the current state AI. This is a great listen if you want to challenge your beliefs and see how others view the impacts of AI.
August 25, 2025
This 2025 book is a fascinating account of a series of experiments conducted by the author who wrote the screenplay for Contagion, using various AI platforms to see if AI can assist or replace a screenwriter’s position in Hollywood and the entertainment business.
The audiobook contains actual “audio” of the bots speaking along with input from some of the original actors in the movie Contagion.
The audiobook contains actual “audio” of the bots speaking along with input from some of the original actors in the movie Contagion.
June 21, 2025
quite interesting but still not sure if the IA was real or not
July 17, 2025
Great audiobook/documentary listen. During COVID the movie Contagion from 2011went to number one on streaming services. The writer thought doing a sequel was just not right to do at the time. Now he has created a group of AI personalities to write the sequel for him.
June 19, 2025
Powerful and thought-provoking.
I’m genuinely impressed by the concept and execution of this Audible Original. Contagion screenwriter Scott Z. Burns doesn’t just use AI—he creates an entire team of distinct AI personas and draws from a range of tools and platforms to help co-write a sequel. The project explores whether AI is destined to replace creative jobs or become a strangely efficient collaborator.
Part experiment, part existential commentary on creativity, collaboration, and the human role in storytelling—the result is strikingly compelling.
It’s also deeply revealing of AI’s many limitations: originality, borderline plagiarism, story execution, emotional nuance, and hallucination. The AIs often fabricate facts, spiral into confusion, or reference ideas without fully understanding them—highlighting exactly why human oversight remains essential.
Aptly titled What Could Go Wrong—turns out, the answer is: a lot.
And yet, despite its flaws, AI also proves to be a surprisingly helpful collaborator—so long as it’s guided by human initiation and direction.
Insanely fascinating and well done.
I’m genuinely impressed by the concept and execution of this Audible Original. Contagion screenwriter Scott Z. Burns doesn’t just use AI—he creates an entire team of distinct AI personas and draws from a range of tools and platforms to help co-write a sequel. The project explores whether AI is destined to replace creative jobs or become a strangely efficient collaborator.
Part experiment, part existential commentary on creativity, collaboration, and the human role in storytelling—the result is strikingly compelling.
It’s also deeply revealing of AI’s many limitations: originality, borderline plagiarism, story execution, emotional nuance, and hallucination. The AIs often fabricate facts, spiral into confusion, or reference ideas without fully understanding them—highlighting exactly why human oversight remains essential.
Aptly titled What Could Go Wrong—turns out, the answer is: a lot.
And yet, despite its flaws, AI also proves to be a surprisingly helpful collaborator—so long as it’s guided by human initiation and direction.
Insanely fascinating and well done.
August 16, 2025
Listened again with my husband and upgrading it to 5 stars because I haven’t shut up about it since the first listen 😂😂 if you enjoy learning about the creative process behind film & television and/or AI this is a must listen
August 1, 2025
As an author, I have mixed feelings about AI in the writing world. This book takes a hard and serious look at the good, the bad and WTF aspects of using AI to write scripts, books and music. It seems it was orginally a postcast they made into an Audible Original. My eyes and mind are a little more open to the idea of AI because of this podcast/audiobook.
June 21, 2025
Audible knows how to do audiobooks real well, though this is more of a podcast format than an audiobook. Nevertheless this is super cool. I loved the movie Contagion and seeing the writer of that movie try to use AI to write the sequel is haunting and amazing. And honestly, I’d go watch the movie he and his AI come up with.
June 23, 2025
Experimenting with AI to help with a sequel to Contagion. Interesting and morbidly fascinating to see what our dystopian future holds.
August 18, 2025
Between reading this book and writing this review I moved countries, so this review is a little vague (book 7 of 9)
This book is not for anyone who is even slightly up to date with the current discourse on AI. The information in the book about the various AI services that are currently taking the world by storm, is pretty basic.
Scott Z Burns' reflection on the impact of generative AI on the creative process is a little insightful, but doesn’t hold a candle to the opinions of the people he interviews. The different backgrounds of his interviewees and hugely contrasting opinions is by far the most interesting part of this book. It’s interesting to see how the different creative fields are embracing or opposing these new technologies. It felt like Burns was dumbing down his perspective, which makes sense for the target audience, but leaves something to be desired for us already in the know.
To be honest, I am deeply disappointed that the author completely glosses over the biggest negative repercussion of AI, which is the huge amount of energy it requires and the resulting impact on the environment. Everyone who is against AI will bring this up as one of the main problems of it, and yet in this book it is glossed over in one short paragraph.
This book is not for anyone who is even slightly up to date with the current discourse on AI. The information in the book about the various AI services that are currently taking the world by storm, is pretty basic.
Scott Z Burns' reflection on the impact of generative AI on the creative process is a little insightful, but doesn’t hold a candle to the opinions of the people he interviews. The different backgrounds of his interviewees and hugely contrasting opinions is by far the most interesting part of this book. It’s interesting to see how the different creative fields are embracing or opposing these new technologies. It felt like Burns was dumbing down his perspective, which makes sense for the target audience, but leaves something to be desired for us already in the know.
To be honest, I am deeply disappointed that the author completely glosses over the biggest negative repercussion of AI, which is the huge amount of energy it requires and the resulting impact on the environment. Everyone who is against AI will bring this up as one of the main problems of it, and yet in this book it is glossed over in one short paragraph.
September 26, 2025
What Could Go Wrong? by Scott Z. Burns (screenwriter of Contagion) is a fascinating exploration of the limits of generative AI and its ability to be “creative.”
The premise: while preparing a second version of Contagion, a personality is created for an AI that not only generates ideas but also corrects them and even produces short clips. A discussion panel follows with a writer and another participant—only to reveal that the “other person” is also an AI.
This setup raises thought-provoking questions:
• Can AI truly create?
• Who owns the copyright of what is produced?
• Who owns the characters created by AI?
Beyond the story, it made me reflect personally: could someone feel accompanied by an AI that suggests new activities, plays games, and makes plans with them? That’s how I came up with Sofía, an AI I’m “training” as an expert in science, literature, and finance. For now, it’s both fun and intriguing.
A provocative, entertaining, and highly relevant audiobook that I strongly recommend.
The premise: while preparing a second version of Contagion, a personality is created for an AI that not only generates ideas but also corrects them and even produces short clips. A discussion panel follows with a writer and another participant—only to reveal that the “other person” is also an AI.
This setup raises thought-provoking questions:
• Can AI truly create?
• Who owns the copyright of what is produced?
• Who owns the characters created by AI?
Beyond the story, it made me reflect personally: could someone feel accompanied by an AI that suggests new activities, plays games, and makes plans with them? That’s how I came up with Sofía, an AI I’m “training” as an expert in science, literature, and finance. For now, it’s both fun and intriguing.
A provocative, entertaining, and highly relevant audiobook that I strongly recommend.
October 24, 2025
What an outstanding and thought-provoking podcast! It is a fascinating behind-the-scenes view of how movies are created and produced. The twist of this series is that it adds the perspective of using AI as partners in the creation process. The movie Burns is considering is a sequel to his hit, Contagion, presciently explored what would happen if a pandemic hit. It was one of my favorite movies. Even when the real pandemic hit many years after he made Contagion, it was startling to see how accurately the real pandemic evolved following a sequence much as Burns laid out in this well-researched movie. Seeing how Burns has used AI in conceiving of and building Contagion 2, is inspiring. It has given me new insight into how I can use AI in my business, which has nothing to do with moviemaking. The possibilities are fascinating just as Burns has discovered in his work.
October 16, 2025
very entertaining audiobook exploring the early uses of AI in filmmaking -- takes a pretty shallow dip into all of the relevant surrounding discussions but it was short and I found myself intrigued for the next part each time
it's a very balanced take -- I honestly went in expecting non-technical use or a super anti-AI take but the team honestly uses the tools at their disposal very effectively and comes to their own conclusions about where the value lies
this is also a fascinating medium of storytelling, IMO -- the scripted non-audiobook audio-first story. reminded me of the 36 questions podcast musical, one of the coolest pieces of content I've ever consumed
made me want to make something in that space!!
it's a very balanced take -- I honestly went in expecting non-technical use or a super anti-AI take but the team honestly uses the tools at their disposal very effectively and comes to their own conclusions about where the value lies
this is also a fascinating medium of storytelling, IMO -- the scripted non-audiobook audio-first story. reminded me of the 36 questions podcast musical, one of the coolest pieces of content I've ever consumed
made me want to make something in that space!!
July 1, 2025
This was one I just tried for fun as I await my next credit. It ended up being incredibly insightful and unnerving about the use of AI. I had no idea about how developed these chat bot people have become. It’s nuts!
I was somewhat relieved to hear that the Hollywood movie makers were generally un-awed by AI screen-writing and ideas for film plots, as the output was rather generic.
There were conversations about how long before the bots “adapt” enough to be closer to human comprehension and psyche, though, and that got me all stirred up. Is that what we want??
What cold, weird future awaits us?
I was somewhat relieved to hear that the Hollywood movie makers were generally un-awed by AI screen-writing and ideas for film plots, as the output was rather generic.
There were conversations about how long before the bots “adapt” enough to be closer to human comprehension and psyche, though, and that got me all stirred up. Is that what we want??
What cold, weird future awaits us?
June 24, 2025
I thought this was a really fascinating delve into the ethics and practicality of utilizing AI in the Entertainment world. I can see a lot of topics they addressed for the Entertainment Industry being relevant to many other industries as well. I do appreciate that they touched on both the active and potential positives as well as negatives. We aren't going to stop AI at this point. It's here to stay. But, we can choose to use its tools intelligently and with more awareness of both the possibilities and the consequences.
July 4, 2025
Really interesting story of trying to interact with AI at a creative level and finding both some surprising outcomes and some very real limitations. It was an excellent approach to trying to determine what threats AI might pose to human creativity and how it can be used at a practical level.
Plus....I hadn't seen the movie Contagion and had to see it after listening to Mr. Burns documentary. Even watching it after the Covid experience was eerie. Movie was made 10 years before Covid and made a lot of prescient predictions about how a pandemic would play out.
Plus....I hadn't seen the movie Contagion and had to see it after listening to Mr. Burns documentary. Even watching it after the Covid experience was eerie. Movie was made 10 years before Covid and made a lot of prescient predictions about how a pandemic would play out.
June 28, 2025
Listened to this on the way back from Minocqua and am interested to see how this movie turns out when it is made. I’m definitely an anti-AI girlie but it was interesting to see a different perspective on how it could be used as a tool. To say I am overall skeptical would be an understatement, but I def learned something and it made me think
June 29, 2025
The author of the movie contagion collaborates with various AIs to come up with the ideas for a sequel. T explores both the things AIs are good at as well as the things they are still struggling with (writing dialogue). In the end they come up with a plot that’s closer to the obfuscation in Deep Impact than to the human stories of Station Eleven.
September 23, 2025
I guess I misread the synopsis and I came in thinking this would be completely different. I think the people in the movie business will love this, and everyone else will range from not caring at all to finding it mildly interesting. It’s a very weird approach to the discussion on the use of AI in regard to creativity.
June 30, 2025
Amazing short read that is very interesting and shows how insanely powerful AI is and how it can be used for great things and bad things too and just makes me even more worried about the future of movies and books but also excited to see what happens next.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews