Fox at TCA: A Bad Day for Alexa

It was Foxamp8217s day at the annual Winter Television Critics Association tour and the show in question titled neXt was one of six new series the network promoted amp160It was no surprise that it was the most animated session of the day given the subject matter amp160Fox describes the show as amp8220a propulsive factbased thriller about the emergence of a deadly rogue artificial intelligenceamp8221 that threatens the future of humankindamp160 To say it is not a reality show is perhaps not entirely trueIt was the first day of the tour so the press was fresh which made for spirited questioningamp160 amp8220I want to know how soon after you read the pilot script did you unplug your Alexaamp8221 one critic asked of the entire panel setting the tone for the session to followamp8220We gave out Alexas as crew giftsamp8221 said series creator and executive producer Manny Coto after the laughter in the room died downamp8220And nobody opened themamp8221 added John Slattery who stars in the show amp160amp8220They watched the pilot and then they all gave them backamp8221amp8220Are any of you legitimately concerned that this is a real thing that is happeningamp8221 the critic continuedThe answers then became a little more seriousamp8220One hundred percentamp8221 said costar Jason Butler Harneramp8220Iamp8217m like amp8216Theyamp8217re listening to usamp8217amp8221 added Eve Harlow who also starsamp8220I donamp8217t have an Alexaamp8221 Slattery saidamp160 amp8220Iamp8217m shit scaredamp8221amp8220To me the whole premise of the show started because of Alexaamp8221 Coto revealedamp160 amp8220My son was really tired one morning and I was like amp8216Whatamp8217s the matteramp8217 amp160And he said amp8216My Alexa started talking to me at 300 am out of the blue by itself for no reasonamp8217 amp160He claims this has happened a couple times amp160I didnamp8217t know if he had set an alarm or what happened amp160We never got down to the mystery but those things seem to have a mind of their own every once in a whileamp160 We still have five of them in the house because the kids wonamp8217t let me get rid of themamp8221amp8220You have a conversation with someone and the next day your phone is blowing up with ads for whatever you were talking aboutamp8221 Slattery saidamp160 amp8220I mean every time you look at Instagram and you hit something youamp8217re loaded up with ads for whatever amp160Itamp8217s obviously watchingamp160 Thereamp8217s evidence all over the place amp160I live a boring enough life so I donamp8217t careamp8221amp8220The premise of the show actually came from research that I had readamp8221 Coto explainedamp160 amp8220One of the things I read is that if an AI were to accidentally become superintelligent one of the first things it would want to do is not allow anyone to find out that it had become superintelligent because it would want to gain a foothold wherever itamp8217s going before we have a chance to kind of fight back which I found really interesting amp160It would basically play dumb which kind of led to the premise meaning if a group of people found out about it it would not strike in large huge assaults amp160It would kind of go after them in the smallest ways possible so as not to be detected which inherently led to a story and a season whereby this AI which knows everything about our characters is actually attacking them through their personal lives and slowly trying to destroy their lives and their careers so that they can in turn not attack itamp8221Talking later about one of the characters Coto chillingly added amp8220Going on the premise that the AI is going to probe into all of our pasts and use what we have done in the past the secrets we have everything weamp8217ve done I tried to create characters that would all have something amp160It really came out of the idea of trying to build characters that this AI could come afteramp8221Season one he said is amp8220structured as a manhuntamp160 The AI is something the characters have to find because it is not an AI like in some movies amp8230 the kind that exist in the cloud and can spread everywhere amp160This one has a very specific architecture and a very specific set of computers amp160Itamp8217s kind of like a lot of the lone voices in the wilderness basically saying amp8216This is out there amp160We have to destroy itamp8217 amp160No one believes them because if somebody came to you and said there was an AI superintelligence out there youamp8217d be laughed out of the room amp160Our characters are very much operating on their own and itamp8217s basically a chase amp160Along the way the AI is striking backamp160 It is not just sitting passively amp160It is being very intelligent in the way that it goes after each one of our charactersamp8220In the pilot thereamp8217s the kid with the Alexaamp8221 he continued amp160amp8220Thereamp8217s a reason behind that amp160It is trying to do something to the kid to create a situationamp160 Itamp8217s not going for large scale nuclear attacks or anything like that amp160Itamp8217s trying to systematically take out these people in a way that no one will notice so that by the end of the season no one will be able to say amp8216Wow there was an AI out thereamp8217amp160amp8220The research that I read pretty much all said that if this were actually to happen if a superintelligence were to be created it would happen really quickly and we probably would loseamp8221 he saidamp160 amp8220Hopefully Iamp8217ve created a scenario where we can possibly believe that we have a shotamp8221Click on the social media tiles above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively those of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggers

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Fox at TCA: A Bad Day for Alexa

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Ed Martin

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