Sky’s The Wargame Uses AI-Generated Footage to Simulate Russian Missile Attacks on the UK

The programme places former MPs from multiple parties in a simulated UK cabinet and presents a fictional crisis that begins with the suspicious murders of two RAF soldiers and builds toward an attack from Russia. According to TechRadar, the Russian side and any international players receive instructions from producers, while every decision shown from the UK side is made in the moment. The exact military capabilities of the UK are invented.

The simulated cabinet includes Lord Gove as prime minister, Nicola Sturgeon as deputy prime minister, Penny Mordaunt as defence secretary, Baroness Harman as home secretary, Jim Murphy as foreign secretary, Baroness Warsi as attorney general, Baroness Hazarika as director of communications, General Sir Richard Barrons as chief of defence staff, Lord Kim Darroch as national security adviser, Christopher Steele as intelligence chief, Lord Robertson as NATO secretary general and Anthony Scaramucci as US secretary of state. The production uses a fake COBR-style boardroom, military operations room and press room, alongside fake TikTok clips from real-life influencers reacting to fictional breaking news.

Sky has been upfront about its use of generative AI to create scenes showing Russian missiles hitting UK targets, TechRadar reported. The outlet wrote that it was glad the decision was made, pointing to the irony of using AI to depict missile attacks weeks after the global public was told there was a 10% chance AI could kill us all within the next decade. TechRadar said the choice also fed into the series’ wider point that people have become accustomed to a certain kind of peacetime life and have lost any kind of resilience they had since World War II.

TechRadar described The Wargame as “an absolutely terrifying watch” and “the most important piece of television of the 21st century,” comparing its sense of impending dread to Threads, When the Wind Blows and the BBC’s 1966 film The Wargame. It added that the docuseries might be the most important TV show a viewer will stream in their lifetime.

The series arrives as the UK’s War Book is being redrafted in real time to advise the public on how best to be prepared, according to TechRadar. The outlet said seeing how weak and unprepared the UK appears in a direct conflict scenario should serve as a wake-up call, even though the military capabilities shown are fictional. Sturgeon, speaking at the show’s launch event, said: “Governments have to, of course, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. And that’s not just about defence spending. There’s a whole debate about preparedness of the population and some really basic things that we’re just not at the races of, in terms of being prepared for even a fraction of this unfolding. So, getting rid of the optimism bias that this won’t happen, to starting to think seriously about the prospect of this possibly happening.”

TechRadar argued that the UK can no longer bury its head in the sand over how unprepared it is, and that AI is one of the main reasons viewers will be able to realise this. The outlet said the docuseries did not give it confidence about how international conflict could be handled, but noted that politicians forced to choose between “bad and worse” appeared slightly more humanised.