First, they came for publishing in The Devil Wears Prada 2. Then they came for the arts at the Met Gala. Now, the tech bros are coming for our funny girls on Hacks’ latest episode, “QuikScribbl.”
In the sixth episode of the final season of the hit HBO Max comedy, Deborah, desperate to create a giant statue of herself to welcome the guest between her legs, finds a possible investor in a young tech developer named Graham Sweeney. No such thing as free lunch, so to no one’s surprise, he expresses interest in investing in The Diva if Deborah trains his AI chatbot by feeding it her material to “help people sound like the most optimized, funniest version of themselves.”
“For anybody who’s looking to punch up the way that they speak, or write, or make jokes, this will help them,” the venture capitalist tells Deborah and Ava. “Take, for example, a bridesmaid at a wedding. She wants to make a funny toast but she’s a bank teller.”
So not only do tech bros think we’re losers in desperate need of human connection that we’d resort to making friends with AI (ahem, Mark Zuckerberg — although to be fair, some of us already are in a Her type of relationship with bots), but they also think that most humans are fundamentally unfunny that we’d let AI write our jokes? Well, I’ve seen and heard more pathetic attempts to be funny. But the point is, we should be offended as a human race!
Our progressive bi-con Ava — who sported a Palestinian football team jersey last time — is, of course, on the fence about this: “Okay, so when we hand over the material, you can ensure that it’s gonna be used for bridesmaid speeches and not to make like Hitler seem young and funny to red-pilled dark web gooners?” Actually, she’s all riled up, especially after the guy recites the tired AI rhetoric (“AI is here, and it’s here to stay. So you either get on board or you get left in the past.”). That, on top of having to endure that meeting in a bodycon dress and heels, thinking the guy wanted to eat sushi off her tits, really got our girl fired up.
Deborah, thinking this is one of her “woke” antics, brushes it off. “Everything’s unethical if you think about it too much,” she tells Ava, who’s hundreds of open tabs deep into her research on the ethics of AI. Deborah even considers entering the deal with Sweeney by herself to spare Ava the guilt. They have really matured in plenty of ways this final season. If this were any other season, they’d be at each other’s throats. Meanwhile, in this episode, Deborah hears out Ava while folding her clothes(!).
The deal eventually falls through after Sweeney suggests Deborah might soon use the AI to write her jokes, too. Diva doesn’t want to be belittled. Diva loves to work. And in what may just be the best fictional redemption of boomers, dismisses the tech bro by saying, “Why are you trying to optimize the creative process? Art is only art because of the humanity behind it.” Now, I wanna hear that laser hair removal joke that Sweeney called “not art,” which then made Deborah withdraw her support for QuikScribbl.
So then we find our protagonists before a body of water, and Deborah is once again wearing fur, except she is not risking destroying this one to save Ava from drowning like last season. This is her manmade lake. Deborah tells her that she decided against training the AI chatbot. Ava celebrates. “I am so glad I got through to you.” Deborah denies she had anything to do with her “amoral decision based on a nerd being a loser to me.” “Please. This was not all you. If I was that susceptible to your influence, I would have become a communist the moment you first darkened my doorstep.”
Hacks is currently streaming its final season on HBO Max.
Frequently Asked Questions
Deborah Vance considers a tech investment deal involving an AI joke-writing chatbot before ultimately rejecting it to defend the human elements of artistic and creative expression.
Graham Sweeney is a fictional tech developer and venture capitalist featured in the episode who attempts to convince Deborah Vance to license her stand-up material to train AI.
Deborah Vance rejects the deal after the tech investor suggests AI could eventually write her material, insisting that art only has true value because of human effort.
QuikScribbl is a fictional AI platform in the show designed to help average users write funnier speeches, toasts, and jokes using material licensed from professional comedians.
The comedy series Hacks streams exclusively on Max (formerly HBO Max), featuring new episodes covering Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels as they navigate the entertainment industry.
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