What Could Go Wrong? - Scott Z. Burns' Thought-Provoking Journey Into Creativity and AI
By Mike | HJTV Presents! | Tribeca Festival 2025 | Op-Ed
What happens when you hand the sequel to Contagion over to an AI? With What Could Go Wrong?, Scott Z. Burns is not asking — you are finding out in real time.
In 2011, Contagion struck a chord for its unflinching depiction of a pandemic fueled by global interconnectivity. Scott Z. Burns captured scientific rigor, human vulnerability, and emotional resonance. Now, nearly fifteen years later, he revisits that world — not to rewrite history, but to interrogate our AI-driven future.
Enter What Could Go Wrong? — an eight‑episode Audible Original podcast premiering June 11, produced by Plan B Entertainment, Best Case Studios, and Audible. Burns opens the series by asking a generative-AI chatbot named Lexter, characterized as a "bright, witty, and mysterious former film critic” the simple question: should I write a sequel to Contagion? What comes back is not a blue‑ribbon pitch, it is an unsettling narrative spark.
But What Could Go Wrong? goes far beyond “man versus machine.” Burns immerses himself in expert conversations — from epidemiologists Dr. Larry Brilliant and Dr. Ian Lipkin, to AI ethicist Meredith Whittaker, plus peers like Steven Soderbergh — all wrapped around his evolving dialogue with Lexter. It becomes a human quest, teetering between optimism and ethical unease: what do we become when we outsource creativity to machines?
The podcast defies easy categorization, part memoir, part investigative reporting, part speculative sci-fi. Burns blends doubts over creative legacy with journalistic depth and raw AI experimentation. It’s thoughtful, unnerving, and urgent. Listeners don’t just hear the story, they feel it: the clack of keystrokes, the abrupt AI interjections, the pregnant silences that follow an answer. It’s a sound design that pulls you into Burns’ exploration in real time.
The parallels between Contagion and this new podcast are compelling. Just as that film exposed the precarity of hyperconnected societies, What Could Go Wrong? maps the uncharted terrain of creative ownership, tech disruption, and identity in the AI era. As an AI simulates originality, what remains uniquely human?
Burns also confronts looming biological threats, featuring interviews with Dr. Michael Osterholm and Dr. Shanna Swan, tying the creative-AI narrative to real-world stakes. It’s a reminder that while we race toward artificial minds, the next pandemic could be waiting in the wings.
This feels like a cultural touchstone for our time, funded by Audible and Plan B not just because of Burns’ pedigree, but because the industry itself recognizes the gravity of this moment for storytelling. What Could Go Wrong? refuses to let you listen passively. Instead, it compels you to confront fundamental questions: What is creativity? Who owns it? And in a world where AI can mimic insight, what defines us as creators?
Scott Z. Burns isn’t issuing a dire warning. He’s raising a challenge. The conclusion isn't a conclusion, it’s an invitation. To reclaim the conversation over our collective imagination.
In a world sprinting toward synthetic consciousness, What Could Go Wrong? stands as the sound of a human mind refusing silence.