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Sean Foo and Prince Stefan in “Straight Best Friend”Photo: Dear Straight People
The Writers Guild of America is currently on strike to prevent studios from using artificial intelligence (AI) to produce scripts. But a Singapore-based LGBTQ+ media company called Dear Straight People has done just that to create its new three-episode web series, Straight Best Friend.
The series — which follows a gay man’s adult friendship with his straight adolescent crush — was scripted using ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that can produce texts based on written prompts. Dear Straight People used AI to help cut production costs and as a marketing strategy to generate interest in the series, Attitude wrote.
“While helpful, [AI] lacks the creative capacity to craft a compelling script on its own,” the company wrote, noting that the scripts required heavy human editing to achieve a ring of authentic humanity.
Sean Foo, one of the out queer actors in the series, called falling for your straight best friend “one of the oldest clichés in the gay book” but also “one of the most torturous things that can ever happen to a gay person” — something that could certainly make for rich on-screen drama.
“The second you fall for your straight best friend,” Foo wrote, “we start to overthink every single thing they’ve said… all in the hope of finding a single shred of evidence that maybe, just maybe, they too are gay and we would finally be able to turn our fantasies into reality.”
“We [also] start to develop a weird love-hate relationship with them,” Foo continued. “We hate them for not wanting us the same way we want them. But most of all, we hate ourselves for being so stupid for falling for them in the first place.”
The actor said that the company hopes that the series and its other works will “continue to foster a deeper understanding and acceptance of LGBT individuals throughout Asia.”
Indeed, Singapore is slowly paving its way toward greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ people.
Last November, Singapore repealed its 1938 law against gay sex, but the government also amended its constitution to prevent courts from legalizing same-sex marriage. The country’s largely conservative legislative and executive branches aren’t likely to legalize same-sex marriage anytime soon, and a 2019 survey found 56% of citizens against the unions.
Despite this, the country has laws against anti-LGBTQ+ violence and harassment. The country is also host to the annual Pink Dot event, an LGBTQ+ gathering that attracts tens of thousands of attendees.
The U.S. marriage equality movement gradually won by introducing the wider public to LGBTQ+ people and same-sex couples. In this way, Dear Straight People and its media projects could present an opportunity to introduce Singaporeans to queer lives and the urgency to protect them with civil rights.
Straight Best Friend can be viewed at Dear Straight People’s Patreon.
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