Breaking Bad Creator Vince Gilligan Takes Strong Anti-AI Stance with New Show 'Pluribus'

'Breaking Bad' creator's new show 'Pluribus' was emphatically 'made by humans,' not AI

'Breaking Bad' creator's new show 'Pluribus' was emphatically 'made by humans,' not AI If you watched all the way to the end of the new Apple TV show "Pluribus," you may have noticed an unusual disclaimer in the credits: "This show was made by humans." That terse message -- placed right below a note that "animal wranglers were on set to ensure animal safety" -- could potentially provide a model for other filmmakers seeking to highlight that their work was made without the use of generative AI. And just in case the disclaimer wasn't clear enough, creator Vince Gilligan (best known for "Better Call Saul") was even more emphatic in a Variety feature story about the show, declaring flatly, "I hate AI." He went on to describe the technology as "the world's most expensive and energy-intensive plagiarism machine" and compared AI-generated content to "a cow chewing its cud -- an endlessly regurgitated loop of nonsense." "Thank you, Silicon Valley!" he added while laughing. "Yet again, you've f -- ed up the world." "Pluribus" is the former "X-Files" writer's return to science fiction, and it reunites him with his "Better Call Saul" co-star Rhea Seehorn, who plays a romantasy author confronting an alien invasion.

'Pluribus' Creator Vince Gilligan Is a Loud and Proud AI Hater

The new Apple TV series Pluribus stars Rhea Seahorn as one of a handful of people not overwhelmingly happy. Now that the first two episodes are out and people know what it's about, some have wondered if this is all a metaphor for artificial intelligence. Creator Vince Gilligan recently told Variety he thought up and wrote the show before AI and large language models like ChatGPT really gained prominence in recent years. That said, he won't fight anyone who's made those connections, just as he isn't planning to explain things to the degree he did with Breaking Bad. "One thing I did wrong [there] was telling people, 'This is what that meant!' I look back and it was so tiresome," he recalled. Going forward, he's following advice once given to him by Michael Mann in 2002: "Just tell a good story, let the audience figure out the theme. That's their job." Lest you think he's secretly an AI booster, that's not the case at all: after previously telling Polygon he'd never use it, Gilligan used Variety to further affirm his stance. "I hate AI. It's the world’s most expensive and energy-intensive plagiarism machine. I think there’s a very high possibility that this is all a bunch of horseshit. It’s basically a bunch of centibillionaires whose greatest life goal is to become the world’s first trillionaires. I think they’re selling a bag of vapor." Gilligan's beef with the technology primarily concerns "Silicon Valley assholes" who've put all their eggs in the AI basket. Because should it develop "a true singularity that has its own soul, and therefore its own identity," does that mean companies like Meta and OpenAI have created digital slaves to monetize? He certainly seems to think so, and warns audiences to not get impressed by Silicon Valley's latest shiny toy. Like Heretic, the Pluribus credits declares it as a show "made by humans." Whatever else you take away from it in the coming weeks, know that it was all done with a personal touch.