The BBC’s new director-general, Matt Brittin, has revealed that he was recently sent a 50-minute AI-generated episode of the sci-fi show “Doctor Who” — and has judged it “pretty good.”

Brittin added that AI is “not going to replace humans.”

Speaking at the Royal Television Society conference, a key annual gathering for the UK television industry, Brittin told the audience that AI is “not going to replace humans, and we’ll come on to that,” noting that “everyone’s a creator. Not all the creativity is bad,” according to a report in trade paper Variety. Days earlier, he had told an interviewer that he would consider allowing a BBC programme to be made and presented with AI, “within guardrails.”

The news comes at a delicate moment for the venerable sci-fi show, one of television’s longest-running science fiction series, which first aired in1963 and has now been put out to tender after going on hiatus following the conclusion of a $220 million deal with Disney. That timing gives the remarks added weight: with the show’s next production chapter set to be settled through the tender, the director-general’s stated willingness to consider AI-made programming “within guardrails” offers an on-the-record indication of how the broadcaster’s new leadership views the technology’s creative role.

Brittin, who took on the top job at the British national broadcaster after an 18-year stint at Google, did not reveal further details about the episode, including whether it was generated by the BBC itself or sent in by an external party. The BBC declined to comment. Until those details surface, the episode’s origins — and whether the broadcaster follows its director-general’s stated openness with any formal approach — remain open questions.

The BBC’s previous attempt to bring together “Doctor Who” and AI ended after a sweeping backlash from the show’s audience. In 2024, the broadcaster announced that it had begun using generative AI to create marketing materials for its flagship shows, starting with “Doctor Who.” Within weeks, the BBC abandoned its plans, noting that it had “received complaints” about its use of generative AI to promote the show and casting its previous efforts as a “small trial.”

The incident came just a few months after the BBC had set out its “core principles” for the use of generative AI, calling the technology a “significant opportunity” while pledging to a code of public interest, prioritizing talent and “human creativity,” and transparency.

Since then, the broadcaster has launched a series of “pilot projects” using generative AI, including an AI-generated synthetic voice for weather reports and image enhancement — applications that so far keep the technology in a supporting role rather than at the center of a flagship drama like “Doctor Who.”