Swedish television channel TV4 has refuted reports that an AI agent deleted an entire season of a television show mere weeks before it was scheduled to air. Instead, the problem was allegedly caused by human error.
As initially reported by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet (translated via Google Translate), sources stated that production company Mastiff gave an AI agent access to its servers, enabling it to autonomously delete the entire edited second season of reality show The Challenge Sverige. Based on the U.S. show The Challenge, the Swedish reality series has contestants compete in various challenges in hopes of winning one million kr (around $100,600).
Sources speaking to Aftonbladet stated that the deleted files are unrecoverable, meaning that the season must now be reedited — a task which reportedly originally took an entire year the first time around. A spokesperson for The Challenge confirmed to Aftonbladet that the files had disappeared, stating that the show's premiere has been delayed from Nov. 22 to some time next year due to the need to reedit.
However, said spokesperson did not confirm AI involvement, saying only that there was a technical breakdown. TV4's program director Mia Lindqvist subsequently denied that AI was responsible for the mishap, telling Aftonbladet in a later statement that the primary problem was that a backup had failed. An investigation by TV4 had found that The Challenge's edited second season had been deleted due to human error, with no AI involved.
Lindqvist did state that AI is now used by the majority of production companies. However, in this case, it apparently was not to blame for the deleted episodes.