"In 2025, A.I. seems to pop up on TV nearly as often as it does in real life. On the hospital-mockumentary sitcom "St. Denis Medical," a curmudgeonly physician resents the unerring faith that a patient has in his A.I. diagnostic tool. In the high-school-set comedy "English Teacher," an idealistic educator campaigns for "smart" trash cans, only to discover that the new camera-equipped bins are part of an elaborate data-harvesting scheme."
"Some shows have taken a more sympathetic approach. The Apple TV dramedy "Murderbot," based on Martha Wells's book series, tries to see things from the point of view of its titular hero. The story takes place on a far-off planet, where the self-named Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) is tasked with insuring the safety of a group of scientists studying unpredictable local fauna."
Television in 2025 frequently features A.I. across genres, portraying both alarm and empathy. Comedies and satires depict public anxieties: a hospital-mockumentary shows a doctor resentful of patient faith in an A.I. diagnostic tool; a high-school comedy exposes camera-equipped “smart” trash cans as data-harvesting; a Hollywood satire records backlash over A.I. animation in film production. Some series adopt sympathetic perspectives: the Apple TV dramedy Murderbot centers an android who obeys directives with teenage sullenness while preferring to binge space operas, and the character’s recalcitrance humanizes him. A separate sci-fi drama set in the twenty-second century imagines a universe where A.I. flunkeys are obsolete.
Read at The New Yorker
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