My wife and I spent the recent snowstorm bingeing Plur1bus. Within a couple of episodes we were well and truly gripped and forgot about the jigsaw puzzle we’d started before dinner. As the show went on, I couldn’t help but wonder: is this about AI?

According to the shows creator, Vince Gilligan, it isn’t. But he can see why we’d think that, and I’m definitely not alone. Otherwise I wouldn’t have got an answer so quickly. So I’m going to do something I haven’t done since high school. I’m going to write a short essay interpreting a piece of media.

A big part of the allure of the show is its series of reveals, so more than most shows it very much benefits from not being spoiled. Plus I’d only do a bad job of trying to re-explain the plot. So if you’ve not seen it already, go watch now, especially if you’re looking for a way to spend 6-8 hours.

On the surface, the Others behave a lot like an LLM. Informed but naive. Overly eager to please. Carol’s exploration of their inability to lie felt a little like prompt injection. Zosia’s recitation of “fun facts” about alcohol during an evening drinking session might as well have contained an em-dash.

As I thought about it, the parallels seemed to get a little deeper. When there are no “unjoined” humans present, the Others are silent, just ticking along. Without individuals to interact with, they can act, but it seems hollow. They’re lacking some crucial human quality, leaving them more than a little unsettling to watch.

Not everyone sees this as a bad thing, and the reactions of the unjoined could also be mapped to some of the opinions on AI you might encounter on any given day on social media. Carol (fittingly a writer) and Manousos grieve the loss of individuality and are outright hostile to the changes. Koumba immediately takes advantage of the situation and defends its other benefits, while being clearly troubled by other implications. Kusimayu has severe FOMO.

If the Others are to be believed, being joined is a generally pleasant experience, and they’ve effectively done away with crime and war. This is quickly revealed to be unsustainable in the long term. Food shortages in the joined world feeling very similar to the environmental impacts of AI datacenters.

Of course, this is just how I’m viewing the show through the lens of someone who’s been thinking about AI a lot. One of the really delightful things about the writing of this show is how different things can stand out to different people. I could see a whole host of other perspectives. There could be parallels to consumerism in the face of climate change. The invasiveness of fame. Loss of culture through gentrification. Colonialism.

It’s been a very long time since a TV show felt this relevant, relatable and open to interpretation. Suffice to say, much like the Others, an AI could not churn out writing this good.