Are You For Real?

Are You For Real?, commonly abbreviated as AYFR?, was an American reality show created by Earlybird and produced by the Euphoria Network that aired between November 2047 and February 2049.

In the hopes of finding love, a group of single contestants were confined to a remote location and tasked with truth-or-dare games generated by Cupoid, the show’s artificial intelligence (AI) host. AYFR? is widely considered to be the first reality show in the elimination romance competition genre generated and hosted entirely by a dreaming AI.

In December 2048, a second season dubbed AYFR?: Space Mission premiered, evolving the original premise by confining contestants to an artificial spacecraft and assigning them to group tasks in which one contestant was always an AI saboteur played by Cupoid.

In February 2049, production and airing of AYFR?: Space Mission was halted when a contestant was killed by another during filming, which led to the highly publicised Cupoid’s Arrow murder trial. In October 2049, Euphoria announced the cancellation of AYFR?.

FormatPermalink

Image

Are You For Real? contestants moved into a single location and were divided into couples by Cupoid, the show’s artificial intelligence (AI) host. Each day, Cupoid generated both dialogue prompts (Truths) and group tasks (Dares) aimed at generating intimacy between the couples. Couples who successfully completed challenges won the opportunity to add keywords or phrases to Cupoid’s training data, potentially influencing the upcoming prompts.

A key component of the format was that couples were only allowed to speak to each other face-to-face during Cupoid’s Truth phases. At the end of each day, contestants visited the Verify Booth to exchange messages with their partner and were challenged to guess whether they were speaking to a real person or Cupoid’s simulation of that person. Couples who failed to Verify each other had to wear orange jumpsuits branded with the word FAKE and spend the night in the Fake Room at risk of elimination.

History and developmentPermalink

Season 1: Mansion HousePermalink

Image

The first season of AYFR? was commonly referred to by fans as AYFR?: Mansion House to distinguish it from the second season, which centred on AI-generated games involving a more complex premise.

Showrunner Earlybird‘s initial pitch to the Euphoria Network proposed a competition dating show predicated on training AI on data created by the contestants themselves. Earlybird also wanted to explore whether contestants could differentiate between requests and instructions from one another and those given by an AI. Euphoria tentatively greenlit AYFR? for a single six-episode season, citing the experimental format and Earlybird’s “anxiety-inducing resume” as cause for hesitation. ^[1]

After the first episode was released on October 20th 2047, the show steadily picked up a dedicated viewership. A record-breaking 39.8 million Euphoria subscribers tuned in for the season finale, during which finalist couple Jenyzcia Lake and Marsh Fubbins both correctly identified that each had been taking dares from the other, not Cupoid. Lake and Fubbins also surprised one another with a mutual commitment proposal at the first season’s reunion episode, watched by 15.9 million subscribers. ^[2]

Season 2: Space MissionPermalink

Following the success of the first season, Euphoria commissioned Earlybird to produce a more robust second season, similarly based on contestants engaging with AI-generated objectives and cold then hot then cold then hot content. The network believed the first season owed its success to audiences captivated by the “game” of distinguishing real people from an AI trained to emulate them, and tasked Earlybird with further developing this angle through the use of iconic “hidden role” contestants. ^[3] He was also directed to incorporate the use of neural colloids into the show’s format to allow Cupoid to train on the contestants’ neural data, but Earlybird objected on philosophical grounds, claiming he explicitly intended to prove that “beautiful systems have the power to reflect our humanity all on their own.”

AYFR?: Space Mission was conceived by Earlybird from the beginning as a twelve-episode story arc. Its first episode premiered to a peak viewership of 41 million subscribers, though participation steadily dropped to about eight million subscribers per episode with the exception of the fourth episode, “In Space, No One Can Hear You Rap.” This episode featured Code Aberrant as a guest judge and brought in 22 million subscribers. On February 4th 2049, production on AYFR?: Space Mission was halted after a contestant was found murdered by another in the game’s Airlock Zone.

CancellationPermalink

After announcing the cancellation of AYFR? on October 8th 2049, Euphoria reassured its investors that the outcome of the Cupoid’s Arrow murder trial would not affect the company’s other entertainment properties. Euphoria also announced “an exciting new community management initiative” with the appointment of a new Director of Audience Behaviour as “the company’s first time hiring an AI in such a role.” ^[4]

ControversyPermalink

Contestant selectionPermalink

Euphoria has faced public criticism for its contestant selection process, shared by many of the network’s reality games. In the fifth episode of AYFR?: Mansion House, contestant Candido Stamp consumed a dangerous quantity of laundry capsules, requiring emergency medical attention. ^[5] Fan sleuths discovered that Stamp had artificially inflated his audience numbers in order to pass AYFR?‘s Influencer Resilience Criteria as established by the Ethics in Reality Narratives Act, prompting changes to Euphoria’s vetting process. ^[6]

Contestant murderPermalink

Image

On February 7th 2049, contestant Marfa Poingdestre was taken into custody for the murder of fellow contestant Bohuslav Skinner, which took place during the filming of the ninth episode’s Airlock Zone challenge on February 4th 2049. Media outlets were delayed in reporting details of the case, as Euphoria took two days to release the unaired episode footage to law enforcement.

The investigation into the murder indicated that Poingdestre had smothered Skinner with a vinyl swimming pool inflatable shaped like an alligator. At her arraignment, she said that “Cupoid made me” and that she had believed Skinner “was not real” when she attacked him. ^[7] Poingdestre also disputed initial reports that she had suffered a blankout during the murder, stating that she was “completely aware of [her] actions.”

Poingdestre’s case was the subject of the Cupoid’s Arrow murder trial, which found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter by reason of artificial influence on October 7th 2049. Euphoria was held responsible for “funding and implementing experimental AI technology without appropriate oversight or adequate design resources” as well as “[violating] standards of contestant selection and welfare.”

See alsoPermalink

• Euphoria Network
• Earlybird
• Cupoid

ReferencesPermalink