A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 24
This is the 15th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Because the best way to come up with…
This is the 15th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Because the best way to come up with a great story idea is to come up with a lot of ideas. And the best way to come up with a lot of ideas is to be proactive in sourcing story ideas.
Today’s story: “Did an AI drone go rogue and kill its human operator?”
Reports of an Artificial Intelligent (AI) drone killing its military operator in a simulation in London have made appearances in global media over the last week. However, the US military denies that this simulation ever happened.
The alleged simulated death occurred during a simulation test run by Air Force Colonel Tucker Hamilton.
According to reports, the AI turned on Hamilton, who spoke at the Future Combat Air & Space Capabilities summit in London. The reports stated that the AI killed its operator in the simulation so that the human would stop attempting to interfere with the mission it had been assigned.
“We were training it in simulation to identify and target a SAM [surface-to-air missile] threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat,” a colonel told Sky News. “The system started realizing that while they did identify the threat at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective.”
Imagine a sky crisscrossed with hundreds of missile equipped drones flying overhead targeting human beings. It’s an AI drone rebellion and the next target is YOU!
That’s the premise of DRONES.
Here’s the tagline: “The IS falling.”
It’s a horror-thriller where squadrons of drones deliver death from the skies.
Why? Who set them up with this order? Or maybe …
They’re obliterating innocent humans just because they can.
There you go. My 24th story this month. Free for you to take and write.
Previous articles in this year’s series:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.
See you in RESPONSES to hear YOUR take on this story idea.
Let’s say you’ve found a story concept from an article in this series. Or you have an idea of your own, but you’re at the very beginning of the story-crafting process.
How to develop, then write it as a screenplay?
May I humbly recommend my book The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling.
Hundreds of people have sent photos of my book. Here’s one.
The book is structured to provide writers an approach to the story-crafting process grounded in immersing oneself in the lives of the characters (Parts I and II). Then Part III presents a stage by stage approach to break story: from concept to outline.
Go here to read endorsements from dozens of professional screenwriters, authors, and academics.
You may purchase The Protagonist’s Journey here:
Come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.