Meet the Stand-up Comedian Behind Max the AI in Season 6 of 'The Circle' (SPOILERS)

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Season 6 of The Circle.

Get ready to #scream because The Circle is flipping the script! Season 6 is leveling up the game by adding an Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot to the beloved competition. Meet Max, an AI chatbot who's crashing the party and looking to take home the $100,000 cash prize.

When it comes to this all-new kind of catfish, fans have a few questions. For starters, is Max the AI based on a real person? If so, who is the human counterpart of Max? Read on for all the known details!

According to Tudum, the producers toyed with the idea of creating an AI-generated photo for Max's profile. However, The Circle team ultimately decided on a real person to be the face of Max. Enter Griffin James, a stand-up comedian based in Los Angeles, who takes on this role.

"Someone from the casting team reached out to me on Instagram," Griffin told Tudum. "At first, I thought I was the one being catfished, but it turns out they wanted me to be the face of the AI."

As a self-proclaimed superfan of reality television, Griffin was immediately intrigued by the prospect of participating in the experiment — albeit with a twist.

"It sounded like a cool opportunity, so I didn't hesitate much," he explained. "I'm not sure why I was chosen. To boost my own ego, I'm telling myself it's because I'm handsome, but not too handsome to the point where I can't be trusted."

Regarding his personality, Griffin sees parallels with Max's: "We are similar in the sense that we both lead with kindness," he told the outlet. "I enjoy being friendly and having fun with people."

However, in navigating conflicts within the Netflix reality competition series, Griffin said he would take a different approach than Max. He told Tudum, "A difference between us is if someone starts drama with me, I end it. Fast."

On April 20, Griffin took to TikTok to reveal his involvement in Season 6 of The Circle. His video has already racked in over 1.1 million views and nearly 800 comments, most of which compare his situation to the Black Mirror episode "Joan Is Awful."

Also, the top comment under Griffin's video states, "When you apply for The Circle, there's a section you can click that says you allow them to use your pics as a catfish if you're not chosen!"

This suggests the possibility that Griffin applied to be on Season 6 of The Circle but was not picked. While Griffin mentioned to Tudum that a casting producer reached out to him on social media and asked him to be the face of Max, it's plausible that this occurred after they decided not to include him in the cast as himself.

Season 6 of The Circle is now streaming on Netflix.