The Five Day Build: This is the first post in a week-long series about how to use AI in a progressive, multi-dimensional way to build more creative projects and outcomes. I've been thinking for a long time about things to assign that aren't homework that really lean into the generative power of AI tools. Here's my first example of what that could look like with an assignment around generating a mini-movie from a script.
A lot of people underestimate how much AI use compounds on itself the more you use it. But I've learned firsthand how beneficial it is to layer tools and prompts on top of one another, which vastly expands the creative universe of possibilities.
Often in product demos, we tend to see a lot of finished products, but not a lot of works in progress of how things come together behind the scenes. So this week, I’m experimenting in public. I’m calling it, The AI-Fueled Progressive Build—a five-day micro-project.
My project this week? A fake sitcom pilot.
I've decided to see how far I can use AI to invent a creative concept for an exaggerated take on my very real life: A tech founder with too many ideas, two small kids, a meerkat mascot, and a husband who works on Broadway yet still somehow has better time management than me.
Each day, I’ll layer on a new AI tool, reflect on the results, and try to make something vaguely coherent (or at least entertaining) by Friday.
Ready? As Miko the Meerkat would say, "Let's dig into this!"
Time Spent: 10 Minutes
Getting started is the easy part.
First, choose your topic idea for a short script and come up with a few things that you want the AI to help you flesh out in a script sample. You could pick any topic you want here – fan fiction, an extension of a literary text from class, or even a deep dive into a highly technical topic.
Since my ChatGPT instance knows so much about me already, I decided to pick something that would lend itself to a pretty easy first draft attempt. After a quick brainstorm with friends, we came up with a basic sitcom concept and a few key themes, then set off straight to work.
Here's the prompt I used:
i want to make a pilot episode for a netflix series about my life. think - silicon valley meets crazy ex girlfriend. the premise is, new york startup female founder with bad ideas only, every season is a new failed startup. juggling two young girls - 3 and 5 - and a busy husband who works in sound design for broadway and SNL. using what you know about my life and my startup, write the first episode script
ChatGPT
Note that if you choose to ask your AI of choice to make up a script about your life, it works best if it already has a lot of stored memory about your. If that isn't the case, you'll need to feed it a lot more context, either about yourself (if you're repeating this exact exercise) or the topic you chose.
Below is the raw, unedited readout of ChatGPT's response to my prompt above:
Title: Only Good at the Zero to One
Episode 1: "Welcome to the Museum, Ma'am"
Tone: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend meets Silicon Valley meets The Chair
Format: 30-minute dramedy
Setting: Upper West Side, NYC + scattered museums, tech coworking spaces, therapy offices, and playgrounds
Theme of episode: “You can’t raise capital and toddlers at the same time. (But you will. Badly.)”COLD OPEN
INT. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM – DAY
A sleek AR demo is underway. Kids and parents gather around. A MUSEUM EDUCATOR tries to engage a distracted crowd while BETHANY (mid-30s, expressive, caffeinated, clearly spiraling inside) stands nearby with a beat-up iPad and a plush toy meerkat clipped to her backpack.
BETHANY (V.O.)
Most people build startups with cofounders, or capital. Or sleep.
I decided to build mine with a puppet and a nursing toddler.CUT TO: A chaos montage: spilled coffee on her laptop, getting feedback from a 7-year-old, hitting “send” on a pitch deck at 3am while holding a feverish child.
BETHANY (V.O.)
My name is Bethany Crystal. I’m a founder.
Of what? Depends on the month. Right now: a talking meerkat that explains AI to children.
Why? Because no one else is doing it. And I have a deep-seated need for external validation.Cue theme music: “WE BUILT THIS CITY” (but lo-fi and ironic).
ACT I
INT. APARTMENT – EARLY MORNING
A chaotic ballet: BETHANY’s 5-year-old (LYDIA) is refusing to put on her shoes. Her 3-year-old (SYDNEY) is yelling at Alexa to play “Let It Go.” Her HUSBAND (early 40s, calm, efficient, halfway out the door with an SNL tote bag) kisses Bethany on the cheek.
HUSBAND
I left you oat milk in the fridge and sanity in the dishwasher.
(beat)
Sanity’s metaphorical. Dishwasher's real.BETHANY
Cool cool cool. I have a demo in four hours and a third of a product.HUSBAND
So… better than last time?BETHANY
No, because this time I promised a school district that Miko the Meerkat would teach five-year-olds how ChatGPT works using hand puppets and soil moisture sensors.
(beat)
Also I’m accidentally leading a neighborhood uprising.HUSBAND
Babe, why are you like this?BETHANY
Because I was once employee #3 at a crypto startup and I’ve never recovered.INT. CO-WORKING SPACE – LATER
Bethany stares at a whiteboard filled with phrases like “AI literacy is the new digital citizenship” and “like Duolingo but with dirt and curiosity.” A YOUNG INTERN walks in.
INTERN
Hey! I finished the app mock-up. But it only speaks Spanish now and keeps misgendering the meerkat.BETHANY
Honestly, that’s still better than the Google Docs-based curriculum the DOE is using right now.Her phone rings. It’s GALE BREWER.
BETHANY
(cheerfully)
Gale! My favorite city council member!GALE BREWER (V.O.)
Bethany, did you apply for a block association grant and promise to install “sentient tree sensors”?BETHANY
Yes, and we won! Can I count on your endorsement?INT. MUSEUM BATHROOM – MIDDAY
Bethany locks herself in a stall to rehearse a demo.
BETHANY (to puppet)
Hi kids, I’m Miko! I’m here to explain... hallucinations?Silence. Her puppet stares back.
BETHANY
Miko, is this what burnout looks like?A preschooler flushes a toilet in the next stall. Bethany sighs.
INT. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM – DEMO TIME
Parents gather. Her app glitches. A child screams “MIKO ATE MY DAD.” Bethany takes a breath. She gets on the floor with her puppet.
BETHANY (to crowd)
Hi, I’m Bethany. This is Miko.
We’re here to help your kids learn how not to be replaced by robots.Silence. Then… laughter. A parent claps. Then another. The app stutters to life. MIKO begins a lesson on “what it means to be wrong but still curious.”
INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT
Bethany collapses on the couch. Kids are asleep. Her husband is watching Hamilton bootleg clips. She stares at a Slack notification that says: “Investor feedback: Let’s circle back Q1 2026. Love the heart, confused about the TAM.”
She closes her laptop.
BETHANY (V.O.)
Another day, another maybe.
Maybe I’m building the wrong thing.
Maybe I’m not.
Maybe the future needs more talking meerkats.She turns off the light. A tiny voice from the kid’s room:
LYDIA (O.S.)
Mommy, I told my teacher you work at the museum and you made a robot.BETHANY (soft smile)
Close enough, kid.Fade to black.
Well... not gonna lie, some of that hit a little too close to home.
Setting aside the AI’s somewhat brutal depiction of my startup and family life, let’s focus on evaluating the quality of the output from the task at hand. Here's my take:
Understood the assignment
I asked for a comedic storyline that fell somewhere between Silicon Valley and Crazy Ex Girlfriend; while not all of the humor lands as sharply, the tone is definitely in the right direction.
Including hyper-specific context about my life in the storyline
Maybe some of these jokes are only funny to me, but I was impressed by its recollection (note that I didn't even mention meerkats in my prompt, but it's clearly featured prominently in the whole script). Interestingly, I noticed the AI's recency bias reflected back at me, I noticed a lot of themes based on on queries I fed it throughout the past week.
Didn't actually give a script for a full pilot episode
These micro-scenes are more like teasers, not fully fleshed out storylines with development plot points.
No additional characters, too self-focused
A really big problem we're starting to see with AI is how it enables so much self-siloing and a "me-first" mentality; this is coming across loud and clear here, with few additional characters or subplots built in.
Story arc makes no sense
Granted, I didn't give it a specific theme or story structure, but you'd think the AI would have a better grasp of what "good" looks like from narrative structure overall - there should be a lead-in, a center conflict, and a resolution - I am seeing none of that.
Overall, this was a fun party trick, but I thought a pretty weak output for anything legitimate that could actually claim to be a pilot episode script. It reads more like an outline or grab bag of ideas. But is it enough of a starting point to build upon with the help of other AI's?
Tomorrow I'm going to come back in with a bit more design direction and aspire to also learn a bit more about how the pros do it. Then I'll see what happens when I use another AI tool to learn a little bit more about actual scripts, then feed in a bit more context, character personas, and script examples to see if we can get to a better draft.
Stay tuned...
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A lot of people underestimate how much AI use compounds on itself the more you use it. So this week, I’m experimenting in public. I’m calling it, The AI-Fueled Progressive Build—a five-day micro-project. Each day, I’ll layer on a new AI tool, reflect on the results, and try to make something vaguely coherent (or at least entertaining) by Friday. My project this week? A fake sitcom pilot about an exaggerated take on my very real life. See how Day 1 went here: https://hardmodefirst.xyz/the-5-day-ai-build-day-1-writing-a-sitcom-pilot-with-chatgpt