Re:Celebrating Gene Roddenberry's 100th Birthday
by okamiueru on Friday August 20, 2021 @12:04PM
(#28247580)
Thanks for the heads up of Person of Interest. It sounds right up my alley, and I'm sure I would have given it a pass if not for that.
Re:Celebrating Gene Roddenberry's 100th Birthday
by chess_buster on Friday August 20, 2021 @11:20AM
(#28247056)
I agree regarding Person of Interest. I just love the show.
There is one exception. Probably the only one, or at least the only one I know of. JJ Abrams was an executive producer on Person of Interest series, which is to date the best coverage of AI in television[0]. I was shocked when I noticed JJ's name in credits, because the show is very good in the cerebral sense, unlike everything else I've seen his name on[1].
I'm not denying his film-making skills. He's sharp. But his specialty is action and visuals, not deep plots.
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[0] - It starts pretending to be a run-of-the-mill crime solving drama with a sci-fi twist - the protagonists receive tips of possible violent crimes from an AI. But very quickly it turns into a discussion of AI ethics, state surveillance (the show managed to depict Snowden revelations before they happened!), information security, pros and cons of black-box vs. glass-box algorithms, and AI control/alignment problem. That's on top of good character development and regular (but not overdone) firefights that keep things interesting.
[1] - Most notably Westworld, which, like PoI, was created by Jonathan Nolan, and had a chance of being a spiritual successor - but it became a repetitive, violent action series from 2nd season on, with a plot that serves mostly as an excuse for characters to murder each other.