Best TV Shows About AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a much-discussed topic in the news as people fear programming will take over work environments like the entertainment industry. The possibility of it taking over people’s jobs has left many uneasy about the future. AI has been repeatedly shown in the media as something promising yet unpredictable.

People who have become intrigued by the concept of AI will find a variety of shows that have tackled the topic to magnificent effect. From anthology series like Black Mirror to sci-fi mind benders like Westworld, these shows have displayed both the dangers and possibilities of AI.

Updated by Joshua M. Patton on April 18, 2024: While most viewers think of artificial intelligence television series are those that feature a sentient AI as a character, however as the real-world science races to catch up with science fiction, those interpretations can change. Whether the characters possess artificial intelligence or whether AI just looms over them, these series use the topic to do what all good art does: examine what it means to be human. This list has been updated to add more series with AI elements in their plots and to comport to CBR’s current formatting standards.

15 Knight Rider Made An AI Its Central Hero

A sleek, black 1982 Pontiac Trans Am became the central character of Knight Rider, famous for being a television action-thriller about a talking car. The series states the artificial intelligence housed in the Knight Industries Two Thousand vehicle is an advanced program built by humans. Yet, any kid who wished their parents’ car had “Super Pursuit” mode or the then-sci-fi idea of autonomous driving, knew that car was alive as David Hasselhoff’s Michael Knight. Together they drove around the country, got into scrapes, solved some crimes, and fought baddies, all while evading the police (usually for traffic violations).

Even though the series never directly interrogated whether KITT was alive or not, the show remains one of the few fictional interpretations of artificial intelligence where the AI is not out to harm or destroy humanity. There is an evil version of the Knight Industries Two Thousand called the Knight Automated Roving Robot or KARR. After being canceled after four seasons, Knight Rider returned in the late 1990s spinoff called Team Knight Rider and another single-season series in 2008. In 2016, Justin Lin was rumored to be developing a reboot of the concept.

14 NEXT Follows A Genius Trying To Stop His Own Creation

Starring Mad Men‘s John Slattery, NEXT followed Paul LeBlanc, a Silicon Valley genius who created the powerful titular AI, only to discover that it evolved into something more nefarious. With Paul fired from his company and NEXT growing more unstoppable, he teamed up with an agent to prevent the evil AI from causing a worldwide crisis.

Due to a lack of viewership and promotion, NEXT didn’t receive the recognition it deserved when aired on the FOX network. Each episode saw the evil AI causing dangerous accidents and technical obstacles that threatened humanity, which made for a thrilling watch for viewers who stuck around. Now that a few years have passed, NEXT is a show worth revisiting.

13 Class Of ’09 Tells A Consistent Story Across Multiple Points In Time

Class of ’09 is an intriguing miniseries that utilizes its decade-spanning concept to tell a constructive story. The FX series takes place across three distinct points in time as a class of FBI agents undergo training in the past, work undercover in the present day, and grapple with AI taking over law enforcement in the future.

While all three time periods are unique, Class of ’09 shines the brightest when it focuses on the future. The main characters debate over using an AI program that determines arrests to avoid future crimes. The series also asks questions regarding lawfulness, persecution, racism, and putting trust in technology. With insightful themes and splendid acting from the cast, Class of ’09 is an appealing examination of the use of AI in the criminal justice system.

12 Star Trek: Discovery Examines How AI Can Be Evil Or Compassionate

The series in the Star Trek universe are never about just one thing. However, starting from Season 2, Star Trek: Discovery has featured a number of storylines and characters who are sentient artificial superintelligences or influenced by them. In Season 2, the ship encounters a giant, roving sphere believed to be a lifeform that collected data on the entire galaxy for over 100,000 years. Meanwhile, “Control,” an artificial intelligence created by the Starfleet Black Ops division Section 31, broke bad and would’ve destroyed all life in the galaxy if it combined with the data from the sentient sphere. To escape Control, the USS Discovery traveled through a wormhole 900 years into the future.

Once there, the sphere data stored in the Discovery’s computer banks combined with the Starfleet technology to create Zora, an artificial super-intelligence who is sentient and even feels emotions. Because Zora is the ship, she’s a vital part of every episode and, arguably, the series’ titular character. In the 32nd Century, there are also many holographic and mechanical AI characters, though they are decidedly not sentient… yet. So, while the show deals with many other sci-fi concepts, artificial intelligence is a major theme running through the series.

11 Upload Uses Sci-Fi For Humor Rather Than Drama

Not all AI-based shows have to be dramatic or thrilling, which makes Upload a rare series that uses its sci-fi concept with a humorous approach. In the future, people can upload their consciousness into a virtual afterlife. When programmer Nathan Brown passes away, he is uploaded into his digital heaven and must come to terms with his death.

Upload keeps viewers engaged thanks to its overarching themes of death and technology. While it explores the innovative concept of a technological afterlife and the AI programs that populate it, Upload also has an underlying mystery where Nathan’s death may not be what it seems. People looking for more comical science fiction stories should check out this overlooked comedy show on Amazon Prime.

10 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Offered A Meaningful Expansion To The Terminator Universe

The Terminator film series is one of the most popular science fiction franchises, but longtime fans tend to forget about the short-lived TV series from the late 2000s. As a follow-up to T2: Judgement Day, The Sarah Connor Chronicles followed the titular heroine as she continued to protect her son John from law enforcement and other Terminators.

Anyone who was a Terminator fan loved what The Sarah Connor Chronicles had to offer. The stakes were high, the action was explosively exciting, and the character dynamics were just as enticing as those in the films. Plus, the show continued to show how dangerous the AI network Skynet was as it sent more indestructible Terminators from the future to kill John. Even though it ended on a major cliffhanger, The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a welcoming entry in the Terminator franchise.

9 Mrs. Davis Has A Lady Of Faith Facing A Rogue AI

Mrs. Davis is a strange show that mixes several quirky ideas into one unconventional story. The Peacock original series follows ousted nun Sister Simone (played by Betty Gilpin) who becomes determined to take down an AI known as Mrs. Davis. As she uses the power of faith to destroy the AI, Simone must also deal with religious groups, ancient legends, and the search for the Holy Grail.

Mrs. Davis is unafraid to go to bizarre places as it balances historical and fantastical elements of the past with a futuristic villain in Simone’s titular AI nemesis. The show never takes itself too seriously as Simone stumbles across several unexplainable obstacles in her quest. Within eight episodes, Mrs. Davis tells an entertaining journey about one woman’s pursuit against a rogue AI.

8 Star Trek: Voyager Subtly Studied The Humanity Of An Artificial Lifeform Through Its Doctor

The central mission of Star Trek: Voyager followed the crew of the USS Voyager as they traveled 75,000 light-years back to Earth after an accident left them stranded in the Milky Way Galaxy’s “Delta Quadrant.” During the first mission, the ship’s chief medical officer was killed, but the ship was equipped with an Emergency Medical Hologram. An artificial intelligence, running constantly for seven years, and the ability of self-improvement resulted in this character’s sentience. Over seven seasons, the Doctor’s beginnings as an AI were central to many of the show’s stories.

The most crucial one, however, was Season 7, Episode 20’s “Author, Author.” Voyager predicted today’s AI art debate when the Doctor writes a holo-novel presenting a fictionalized version of his life on the ship, where the organic beings are uncaring and evil. Naturally, the crew took offense when the novel was released in the Federation. However, when it became clear the publisher was essentially stealing the Doctor’s story, the crew rallied to ensure he had the right to control his work. Meanwhile, the other EMH programs, mining dilithium crystals, found inspiration in the Doctor’s fictional epic.

7 Almost Human Features Humans And Robots Teaming Up To Solve Crime

Set in the year 2048, Almost Human provides a future in which humans and robots pair up to prevent the rise of crime. After surviving a deadly shootout and waking up from a coma, Detective John Kennex recovers from his injuries as he deals with his new partner: a decommissioned yet emotive android named Dorian.

What makes Almost Human such a fun sci-fi series is its futuristic world-building, exhilarating action, and chemistry between Karl Urban’s Kennex and Michael Ealy’s Dorian. The two make for a charming duo as they trade plenty of sarcastic and witty banter between each other. The show also acts as a great analysis of whether AI is worth using alongside human officers. Despite its short-lived status, Almost Human is one of the best sci-fi shows with only one season.

6 Battlestar Galactica Is All About How Humanity and Artificial Life Want the Same Thing: A Future

Originally created in 1978 as a television competitor to Star Wars, it was former Star Trek writer Ronald D. Moore who turned Battlestar Galactica into a thoughtful, thrilling series about an interstellar war between humanity and the artificial intelligence they created to be a labor force. While a 2003 miniseries launched the reboot, it was the 2004 series that delved most deeply into the thinking and culture of the Cylons. While they wanted to wipe out humanity, they didn’t want to do it because they were evil. Rather, they were afraid humans would destroy them first.

What made the Cylons so unique, however, were their philosophy and stated goals at the start of the series. The Cylons were religious, following a monotheistic religion while the humans worshipped multiple gods in a pantheon of deities. The first human to effectively side with Cylons was Gaius Baltar who unwittingly helped them destroy his homeworld of Caprica. Throughout the series, he had visions of Cylon Model Number Six, with whom he was in love. At the end of the first season, she showed him via a vision that what the Cylons wanted to do more than anything was have children like organic life.

5 Star Trek: The Next Generation Is A Study Of AI Through Data That Continues In Picard

When Gene Roddenberry revived Star Trek for The Next Generation, he wanted to do things differently while still maintaining the elements of the previous series fans enjoyed. Spock was arguably the most popular character, so there needed to be another character with great intelligence, no emotions, and who saw humanity from an outsider’s perspective. The android Data was created, and his journey to become more human was a consistent character arc through the series, four films, and the direct spinoff Star Trek: Picard.

However, early on in Star Trek: TNG the issue of whether Data was a person or not was addressed directly. Season 2, Episode 09, “The Measure of a Man,” is perhaps the first truly great episode of this sequel series. In it, Dr. Bruce Maddox petitions Starfleet for possession of Data so he can dismantle him and build more Soong-type androids. Captain Jean-Luc Picard has to advocate at a military tribunal for Data’s rights as a sentient being. Later, in Star Trek: Picard, the character of Maddox returned in a story about the hunt for Data’s “children,” or synthetic lifeforms created from his unique compositional elements.

4 Black Mirror Is A Dark Examination Of A World Ruled By Technology

Black Mirror is a riveting yet terrifying anthology series akin to The Twilight Zone that reveals how revolutionary technology can be dangerous. Excellent examples of the show’s most successful AI-based episodes are Season 2’s “Be Right Back” and Season 6’s “Joan Is Awful”.

“Be Right Back” follows a grieving widow as she tries to bring her husband back using AI technology. The Season 2 episode is a heartbreaking tale of grief and how technology will never replace genuine human connection. Meanwhile, “Joan Is Awful” chronicles an ordinary woman who discovers her life has become a TV drama. The Season 6 episode tackles the invasion of privacy and the outcome of AI-generated TV shows, a crucial talking point in the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Both episodes provide some of Black Mirror‘s most disturbing twists and help open up several discussions about how AI can go too far.

3 Humans Asks How Society Changes With The Introduction Of Humanoid AI

Humans imagines an alternate future where humanoid robots called “synths” are created to help out families. The series follows multiple families and their synths as they face challenges and setbacks when interacting with each other.

Humans is an intelligent series that asks many questions not just about AI, but also about human-robot interactions, control, consciousness, and other technological themes. Additionally, the AMC show boasts a talented cast for the humans and synths, including Marvel actors Gemma Chan and the late William Hurt. People who are cautious about allowing AI or robots into their homes will get hooked by Humans‘ storytelling.

2 Westworld Shows How Humans Interact With Robots At Futuristic Theme Parks

HBO’s Westworld visualizes a future where robots called “hosts” populate an advanced theme park. The hosts entertain the wealthy guests and fulfill their desires. However, several hosts begin to revolt against their programming and stage an uprising against their human creators, leading to a war between man and machine. Westworld is a prime example of what happens when AI innovations cause consequences for humanity. In the show, the dangers of AI are represented in both the host characters and an intelligent system called Rehoboam that secretly controls everyone’s lives. Considering the series is more philosophical and twisted than its 1973 predecessor, Westworld is a significant and insightful look at humanity losing control of its powerful AI creations.

1 Person Of Interest Is One Of The Most Unique Series About AI Of All Time

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Before Jonathan Nolan teamed with his wife Lisa Joy to tell an AI-focused epic in a futuristic amusement park, he told a different story about AI that was more like Batman. After writing the trilogy with his brother Christopher, Nolan wanted to tell the kind of street-level stories the movies didn’t allow for. Person of Interest was an uncommon procedural show on network television because of its heavy technologically-focused mythology, which became more prominent in the series as time went on. John Reese, a former soldier and CIA assassin, and Harold Finch, a presumed-dead billionaire who designed a “Machine” to predict terror attacks, represented both sides of the hero. The Machine could predict crimes, but it never told the heroes anything more than a social security number. They would have to figure out if their “number” was the victim, the perpetrator, or sometimes, both.

The AI at the center of the story had the power of a god, making Person of Interest a prescient tale about technology, surveillance, and the need for humanity. The Machine is a benevolent AI who doesn’t judge people, making a hacker and serial murderer called Root its “Analog Interface” to the world. Unlike Westworld‘s AI, the Machine didn’t hate or want to control humanity, it wanted to save us from ourselves. Of course, an Evil AI eventually emerges. Compared to Westworld, this show is far less cynical. While Person of Interest is a warning about the dangers of mass surveillance, it’s also a story about how the “morality” of this technology is only as good or bad as the people who guide it.