The show credits state:
“This show was made by humans.”

Imagine a neural network that has absorbed all human knowledge, a massive AI. The Pluribus share this collective intelligence, much as we increasingly rely on and contribute to the shared knowledge of the fledgling AI systems we use today, including the art we create.

The Pluribus hold intimate details of the show’s main character, Carol, and seek to “convert” her, but she is too angry and too fiercely individual to join their relentlessly happy hivemind. Many viewers have pointed out that the way Carol interacts with the collective feels almost exactly like using ChatGPT, with its constant positivity and eagerness to agree.

Vince Gilligan, the show’s creator, denies any such influence. “I have not used ChatGPT, because as of yet, no one has held a shotgun to my head and made me do it,” Gilligan tells Polygon . “I will never use it. No offense to anyone who does.”

And yet, intentional or not, Gilligan has clearly absorbed something from the cultural zeitgeist: the growing sense that we are all being pulled into a vast, benevolent-seeming hivemind. That’s what makes the show feel so prescient, almost uncannily suited to the moment we’re living in.