Shocking catfish twist to new Netflix reality show leaves viewers divided

Netflix viewers have been left seriously divided after sinking their teeth into the latest season of a popular reality show.

The series is one of Netflix’s most well-performing shows, but for its sixth outing, it's had a bit of a shake-up, and fans can’t decide whether they love or hate the new addition.

The Circle is now on season six. (Netflix)

If you hadn't already guessed, we're of course talking about The Circle.

The series sees 11 contestants battling it out, choosing either to be themselves or to catfish as other people to chase a $100,000 cash prize and become the winner.

Producers are now wanting to reflect current cultures and what’s going on in the world, so have created a new, non-human character using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Yep, contestants were introduced to Max, an AI chatbot who entered the game.

Nia O'Driscoll, senior vice president of development at Studio Lambert, said: “The Circle is a fun reality competition, but it’s also a show that says something about our relationship with technology, the way we interact with it, and the way it changes the way we communicate.

“For a couple seasons now, we’ve been talking about [the idea of making] one of the players a chatbot because the biggest conversation around tech has been about AI, so we thought that this really feels like the time to do it.”

It only reinforces the point of the show, which is that you never know who is behind the screen.

To train the chatbot up to be believable to the other human contestants, Nia decided to interview the chatbot just like they would be doing.

She said: “I basically interviewed it like you would any player to create this character and story.”

She asked the bot to tell her about its school life and upbringing, what their family life was like and how they use social media.

She said the team were ‘very surprised how real its speech was’.

Nia added: “We’re not trying to say AI is going to win The Circle or replace people.

“It isn’t human, so it’s not going to get the nuances that humans do.”

Max the AI chatbot. (Netflix)

Fans can’t decide how they feel about the new addition, with one saying: “Now why does The Circle have an AI bot player this season.

“They just p***ed me off.”

Another said: “I do not like the AI contestant idea.”

Meanwhile, others disagreed, with one writing: “LMAO why am I thinking Max the AI is the best male player from the circle game ever.

“That's an AI that has better values than most of these boys omg.”

However, Nia added that the team did run into some challenges when getting Max game-ready.

“The biggest hurdle when it came to Max’s gameplay was with language, which at times felt overly formal for the persona created.

“Max would use words like rad, or it was just very flat.

“That’s when the team would step in to remind Max about his character traits and his purpose in the game.”

You can stream the first four episodes of The Circle season 6 on Netflix now.