'The Circle' Executive Producers Break Down Their Game-Changing AI Twist

An apartment on 'The Circle' season 6 with the AI catfishing as "Max"

At its core, The Circle is a test of humanity. The Netflix series focuses on whether you can make judgments based on purely digital reactions and how limiting face-to-face interactions can influence relationships. So it only made sense that, eventually, humanity would be tested in a brand-new way.

The most recent season of the reality show has introduced its biggest game-changer yet: An AI contestant. Branded "Max," he disguised himself as a human cast member, and used input from the previous five seasons to engineer who to contact and what to say. And then, once they felt Max was properly prepared, they let him loose on The Circle.

"I think from the very beginning, we've always talked about, 'Wouldn't it be really cool if one of the players was AI?'" Co-Executive Producer Niall O'Driscoll tells Parade.com in an exclusive interview. "But it never felt like the technology was really there. And so then when we kind of started to talk about new twists for this season, it was kind of really obvious. This is the most talked about thing in regards to technology in the last few years. So it was perfect timing. And I guess The Circle is a fun game show about popularity. But also, it kind of shines a light on technology and the way we communicate. And it kind of felt like this was the perfect thing to introduce the show."

Niall and The Circle showrunner and Executive Producer Susan House talk with Parade.com about how they created Max's personality, their biggest surprises with the results, and what the response to the AI twist says about us today. The first four episodes of The Circle season 6 are currently available on Netflix, with new episodes dropping in batches on Wednesdays.

Related: Everything to Know About The Circle Season 6

How did the idea of an AI contestant come to be? Was this something in the cards for a while?
Niall O'Driscoll: I think from the very beginning, we've always talked about, "Wouldn't it be really cool if one of the players was AI?" But it never felt like the technology was really there. And so then when we kind of started to talk about new twists for this season, it was kind of really obvious. This is the most talked about thing in regard to technology in the last few years. So it was perfect timing. And I guess The Circle is a fun game show about popularity. But also, it kind of shines a light on technology and the way we communicate. And it kind of felt like this was the perfect thing to introduce the show.
Susan House: Yeah, it was just obvious. It was like, "We have to do this now." And everyone was excited about it. From the very beginning, it was just like, "For sure AI this season. It's time."

Did you use any particular AI platform or software? Once you have the idea, how did Max become Max?
Niall: We didn't create a brand new AI system or anything like that. We used one that was actually available. We used multiple ones and kind of trialed them. In the development process, we wanted to really interrogate how it actually worked and to what limit it would work. But I think what was really surprising is that the more you kind of interacted and the more you created the character of Max, the better it got at being that character. And the more it kind of learned and understood how Max would kind of behave and the language you would use. It was kind of insane.

Max said that he had watched every episode of The Circle to figure out what to say and who to contact. What was that process like?
Niall: Well, the AI obviously has access to the internet. So, it was able to kind of use all of its knowledge from past seasons, past players, and past discussions that people have had about different strategies and different players. And I think that's how we've kind of built up the knowledge and understanding of what The Circle was: How to play, what characters did well, what parts of their personality appeals to playing the game and to other players in the game. So it was taking all of that information in.

And then, when we first started playing around with it, we just asked it to create a profile of a player that you think would be successful in the game. We weren't actually saying, "Create a character that's going to win The Circle." We were just saying, "Someone who's going to be successful at playing the game." What I will say is that it was very good, but its strategy was pretty simplistic. It was like, "Be a nice person. Be nice to everyone." And that's a pretty "Route One" strategy for The Circle. 
Susan: And you can kind of see that in the "Bros" chat with Myles and Paul. And he kind of ducks out of the chat [when asked about who to block]. And that was the kind of thing where we were really just surprised. He couldn't really get in the mix that way. He didn't want to sort of bad mouth anyone. Like Niall said, he didn't really have a complex strategy.

So, how truly "hands-off" was production with Max? Were you actually just letting him loose and seeing how he would respond?
Susan: We really had no idea what it was gonna do. It was pretty crazy. You cast these characters, and you just have enough experience with reality TV where you can kind of predict what they may or may not do. But we would be like, "Niall, what's Max gonna say here?" And we'd be waiting. Even with the rap battle, we were like, "Is he gonna come up with a great rap?" I mean, honestly, it was very surprising. We weren't doing anything. He was very good. It was very real.

From our perspective, Max does have someone speaking his "thoughts" and messages. How was that produced?
Susan: It's an AI voice, for sure, obviously. And we got it after the fact, definitely in post. And so Max, he's obviously speaking through a computer, and then we pick the voice to go with it.

What surprised you the most about what Max was doing in The Circle?
Susan: I was impressed with how good he was and how specific he was. He came up with very creative hashtags! With his slang, he really fit in with the others really well. And that's why it was so interesting, because everyone thought it was Steffi. Because of the horoscope speak, everyone felt was very generic. But I think with Max, we couldn't believe he came up with the Cinderella references. He was having whole dog conversations. To me, I just felt like he was way more specific than I thought he would be and way more current.
Niall: I have kind of a similar answer to that. I think it was surprising to see those details that he picked up on. I think that something that AI does is it looks for things within conversations and then uses them within their future answers. But I feel like there was certain emotional nuances that I think he just wasn't very good at. For example, he didn't really get the concept of flirting. I don't think that was something that he was comfortable doing or wanted to do, which I thought was interesting. Also, like Susan said, he was overwhelmingly positive and nice. Again, we were slightly limited in terms of the way this AI is programmed. They're programmed with a set of guidelines and codes. And so he would never really get angry or say anything too shady or anyone. And that was kind of interesting and maybe reassuring that we're not going to get any crazy, angry robots taking over.

We also have Myles on this season, who is an AI engineer. Was that done on purpose, or coincidentally?
Susan: Yes, we absolutely wanted to cast an AI engineer-type person for sure.

You choose to reveal to the contestants early on that there is an AI player. How much did you end up weighing that versus not telling the contestants until the end that they were playing with an AI?
Susan: I think that once it's known that there's an AI in The Circle, it's hard for anyone to concentrate on anything other than finding the AI. And I think some of the gameplay that we love about The Circle gets a little bit watered down, because everyone's so focused on who's this AI. I mean, honestly, we had no idea if they were gonna discover Max. Are they gonna know who's the AI after one episode and it's just gonna be obvious? We didn't know what's gonna happen. He was so good. That was like, "Okay, well, he's almost too good." [Laughs.]
Niall: Yeah, because I really just felt like a proper experiment, which was really exciting. 

Based on how the twist went down, have you considered bringing AI players in for future seasons? Even if you don't, now I imagine future contestants could be playing with the idea in the back of their head that whoever they're interacting with may not be human.
Susan: I don't know right now. We're just kind of enjoying the ride of the season. I don't think we've had any conversations about bringing anything back in future seasons. Who knows? But that is the thing with The Circle, right? As soon as you introduce anything, everyone thinks it could be two people behind the screen. It could be an AI. It could be this type of catfish. That's part of the game, and that's okay.
Niall: I do love that idea, though, that in future seasons, people are going to be thinking, "Is this person, even human?" And that's an extra level of paranoia to have.

Lastly, this AI twist has been one of the most talked-about things in Circle history. What's been your reaction to the way people have reacted to Max so far?
Niall: Well, I think it's really interesting that lots of people have been like, "[Expletive]. This is reality. This is happening now. We're here." And I think, even when we were talking about how we represent Max and the room, we were like, "This shouldn't feel futuristic." Because actually, it's happening right now. It's not some kind of future thing that isn't in all of our lives. And I think that's really interesting. It's representing that kind of fear to lots of people. But I think, overall, people find this really fun. And they're like, "Yeah, of course, this is a brilliant twist. I want to see it." And I love that we can do this in a fun way. The Circle is a fun show. It's got lots of humor. It's not Black Mirror. It shouldn't feel way too dark. And I think we were really careful of making sure that that came across in the tone and like Max's personality and how he interacts with people.
Susan: I mean, I think we've been really happy. We work really hard on the show. It's blood, sweat, and tears. We know that people love it. We want the fans to enjoy it. We want to make sure it's better and better every year. We really care about it. So I think for us, you know, we're excited that everyone likes the twist. One guy on your podcast said, "Max is my favorite character." And that is super fun and funny. But then also, I feel like Max is a good gateway to how great the entire series turned out in the casting this year and the strategy this year. And I think the ending is amazing this year. So I mean, it's been really positive. And we're happy because we tried to make it the best season yet.

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