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We don\u2019t fear ChatGPT or any of the other rapidly evolving technologies that have been seamlessly integrated into our everyday life. We actually kind of love them<\/a>. And for those that are feeling conflicted<\/a>, there\u2019s no battle being waged with guns and nukes; it\u2019s an internal tussle with the decisions we make<\/a> or the information we trust<\/a>, and the value we place in people \u2013 real people<\/a> \u2013 rather than a patchy shared consciousness.<\/p>\n Admittedly, that\u2019s a tough thing to render on screen. Some poets<\/a> are actually doing a beautiful job. But we now have the first great TV series of the ChatGPT era. If you relate to any of what I wrote above, I can\u2019t stress enough how much you should be watching Pluribus<\/a>. <\/p>\n This sci-fi drama, which concludes on Apple TV this week, isn\u2019t directly about AI at all, but rather a mysterious virus that absorbs almost all human memory and knowledge. Just a handful of people in the world are seemingly immune and, at first, only one seems willing to resist. The series follows cynical romantasy author Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn<\/a>) in her attempts to figure out how this happened and if it can be reversed.<\/p>\n But it also reckons with the idea of whether there\u2019s worth in fighting it. Is it really so bad to have all the world\u2019s knowledge and expertise at your fingertips? Everyone who\u2019s been sucked up into this hivemind seems happy. There\u2019s no crime, no violence. They\u2019re caring for the environment. There\u2019s not even greed or ego. They want to give Carol anything she wants (a fact some fans are having fun parodying on social media<\/a>). And what is individuality truly worth if you don\u2019t have anyone to share it with?<\/p>\n Pluribus sometimes flirts with becoming a full-blown sci-fi thriller. The extraordinary opening episode<\/a> is up there with the best action movies released today. A cliffhanger at the end of episode five and its eventual reveal is the kind of thing a comparable Netflix series would juice for drama and momentum the rest of the season. But, here, its importance is almost immediately undercut \u2013 with space instead made for Carol to embrace stillness and search for answers within.<\/p>\n That might frustrate some viewers, but I find it refreshing. I don\u2019t really care how this virus came to earth or how exactly Carol might defeat it. I\u2019m more interested in the way this show needles at an existential itch I didn\u2019t know needed scratching.<\/p>\n When asked if the show is an allegory about AI, series creator Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) has left it open to interpretation. \u201cWhatever people want to take away from this show is 100 per cent up to them,\u201d he told Variety.<\/a> Although he did point out that he conceived of the series about a decade ago.<\/p>\n That was well before anything like ChatGPT was part of our lives, but it\u2019s impossible to ignore the way so much of the hivemind\u2019s speech appears to mimic these language models \u2013 obsequious and familiar, but hollow. One of the most striking moments from the most recent episode featured Carol\u2019s companion Zosia (Karolina Wydra) almost snapping out of it while recalling her prior self eating mango ice cream and watching ships pass as a kid.<\/p>\n \u201c[I used to wonder], who built them? What were they made for?\u201d she says. \u201cAnd now I know.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to gripe about any new technology without feeling curmudgeonly or out of touch, like those mythical cinemagoers<\/a> (Google AI assures me it\u2019s urban legend) who had never seen a film before and ran screaming from the train hurtling their way. But sometimes I miss that wonder and uncertainty of the pre-smartphone\/chatbot age. And I hate the deadening of original thought and culture that AI has wrought so far.<\/p>\n Karolina Wydra as Carol\u2019s companion Zosia in Pluribus.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, Gilligan also hates it. \u201cAI is the world\u2019s most expensive and energy-intensive plagiarism machine,\u201d he said inVariety. \u201cI think there\u2019s a very high possibility that this is all a bunch of horseshit. It\u2019s basically a bunch of centibillionaires whose greatest life goal is to become the world\u2019s first trillionaires. I think they\u2019re selling a bag of vapour.\u201d<\/p>\n Other creatives have directly explored that idea on-screen, too. Succession\u2019s Jesse Armstrong<\/a> painted a pretty ghastly portrait this year of the reckless titans behind AI technology in Mountainhead.<\/a> Meanwhile, Charlie Brooker has routinely questioned how much of our private selves we offer these corporations with memorable Black Mirror<\/a> episodes such as \u201cBe Right Back\u201d and \u201cJoan is Awful\u201d.<\/p>\n Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with his AI assistant in the 2013 romantic drama entitled Her.Credit: Warner Bros<\/p>\n But, especially in its latter half, which deals more explicitly with Carol\u2019s aching loneliness, Pluribus feels like a companion piece to Her. Spike Jonze\u2019s Academy Award-winning romantic drama about a man who falls in love with his AI operating system was released in 2013, two years after Apple dropped Siri, but set in 2025. It\u2019s a surreal film to re-watch now<\/a>, with the knowledge that people are very much forming full relationships<\/a> with the same kind of technology. And both it and Pluribus are simply centred on what it means to be a person and to live a happy life.<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n This is clearly resonating. Apple TV recently announced the series is its most watched show of all time<\/a> \u2013 bigger than hits such as Ted Lasso and Severance \u2013 and another season is on its way. As Gilligan suggests, I\u2019m sure a lot of those people have an entirely different take on the show to me. You could write a whole other story arguing this is our first great show about COVID.<\/p>\n But that fact alone shows the strength of its craft and complexity. I want TV and filmmaking and art to always stay this strange and daring and debatable, in conversation with our times and feelings and fears.<\/p>\n A cheeky note at the end of each episode\u2019s credits actually hints at why Pluribus might be so successful in this way. It simply reads: \u201cThis show was made by humans\u201d.<\/p>\n Pluribus is streaming on Apple TV now. The season one finale drops on December 26.<\/p>\n Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Karolina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/9c973c016303bed15f7472569f81c5407556ad22.jpeg\")
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