{"id":655319,"date":"2026-10-24T01:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T01:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655319\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T01:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T01:12:10","slug":"blue-planet-iii-features-cloudier-footage-to-prove-authenticity-amid-ai-boom-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655319\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Planet III features cloudier footage to prove authenticity amid AI boom | BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The David Attenborough<\/a>-narrated series Blue Planet III deliberately includes cloudier, less polished footage to counter AI fakery and assure viewers it is \u201cauthentic\u201d, its producers have said.<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade after Blue Planet II shone a light on plastic pollution, and 25 years since the first Blue Planet aired, the hit BBC<\/a> series is returning with more animal behaviour and cutting-edge technology, including the world\u2019s first underwater CCTV camera \u2013 dubbed \u201cstonefish\u201d cam.<\/p>\n

Since the first Blue Planet, TVs and cameras have evolved to give viewers sharper, higher definition pictures. But the combination of the rise in AI and the extraordinary sequences and fantastical creatures captured by BBC Studios\u2019 natural history unit for this series led producers to include what they called more \u201corganic\u201d footage and less polished shots, to show that the animals were not AI-generated.<\/p>\n

\u2018No gen AI was used in this series. Not a single frame,\u2019 said the BBC\u2019s specialist factual commissioning head, Jack Bootle. Photograph: BBC Studios\/Jo Haley<\/p>\n

The executive producer, Elizabeth White, said AI, \u201cmakes us want to be even more authentic\u201d, adding that the creatures filmed in the deep ocean \u201care probably more remarkable than AI could imagine and it\u2019s completely real\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said that in the past \u201cthe amount of plankton and things that are in the water in the sequences\u201d would usually mean they might be excluded, and previously, \u201cwe might have framed out a boat or a buoy or gone: \u2018Oh, actually \u2026 the water conditions are not really good enough for this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But now such things are being left in as \u201cwe\u2019re really leaning into that authenticity \u2026 As AI booms we will probably lean more into the more organic\u201d, murkier and less polished footage.<\/p>\n

For the first time, the BBC\u2019s specialist factual commissioning head, Jack Bootle, assured journalists at a press screening: \u201cNo gen AI was used in this series. Not a single frame. It\u2019s all real photography.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bootle added that as we live in a \u201cgolden age of natural history-making \u2026 sometimes people feel like they\u2019ve seen it all before [so] this series is bursting with novel behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

The hit BBC series returns with cutting-edge technology, including the world\u2019s first underwater CCTV camera \u2013 dubbed \u2018stonefish\u2019. Photograph: BBC Studios\/Jose Branco<\/p>\n

That includes never-before-seen action of dolphins using sea sponges to block holes in coral to trap fish, captured using underwater CCTV \u2013 developed by the programme\u2019s producer and director, Yoland Bosiger.<\/p>\n

Over the four years of filming across five oceans, BBC Studios \u201ccontinually innovated\u201d, said the series producer, Lara Bickerton, creating a \u201cmini-dome\u201d camera to follow an octopus, a \u201cdeep-sea selfie stick\u201d, camera operators wearing leg-mounted scooters to create immersive TikTok-style diving footage and using lasers to film deep-sea creatures.<\/p>\n

Other remarkable animal behaviour captured in the programme includes grouper communicating with another species of fish; 200,000 crabs lining up in formation to feed; sea urchins using shells as sun hats; and footage involving penguins that echoes the Planet Earth II, \u2018iguana v snakes\u2019<\/a> sequence.<\/p>\n

Threats to the ocean as well as its resilience are addressed in the series. Episodes show how the climatecrisis is killing off the sea where anemone clown fish live and what they do to try to fix their homes, and the issue of plastics raised in Blue Planet II continues with a story about pollutants [and] forever chemicals, said White.<\/p>\n

Bosiger said Attenborough, who is 100 years old, was \u201cvery much involved\u201d and made changes to scripts.<\/p>\n

White added: \u201cWhat\u2019s wonderful is he hasn\u2019t lost his curiosity \u2026 he\u2019s still that little boy \u2026 who gets excited \u2026 when you show him a new piece of footage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the BBC\u2019s \u00a3500m cost-cutting drive<\/a> would affect BBC Studios\u2019 renowned natural history reputation, White said she could not comment on that but pointed out that Blue Planet III made savings by using more local crews on location than in previous series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The David Attenborough-narrated series Blue Planet III deliberately includes cloudier, less polished footage to counter AI fakery and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-655319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}