"I won't bite": Generative AI, Robotics, and the Ethics of Loss in <em>Black Mirror</em> 201 "Be Right Back"

Since its premiere in 2011, Black Mirror has proven itself an important television series in its industrial impact and in its thematic ambitions: the show examines how we are to live with contemporary technology. One of its most celebrated episodes, "Be Right Back" (episode 201) considers how AI chatbots and robots can, and cannot, help people deal with personal tragedy. A key question for the show is how episodes like "Be Right Back" construct the ethical and moral dilemmas at the core of contemporary technologies. The essay examines how episodes invite viewers' interest and sympathy in familiar ways, namely, through focalization with key characters, but then rely on how viewer engagement with those characters can manipulate on-going moral and ethical dimensions. In this famous episode, those moral and ethical dimensions of character engagement are mapped onto the personal tragedy and the technological potential to ameliorate it for its main characters.