Robert and Michelle King have spent over a decade making TV about complicated people with messy jobs, and their newest series Cupertino takes that formula straight into the A.I. era. The show stars Mike Colter as a Silicon Valley attorney who gets fired by a startup and reinvents himself as the guy who defends ordinary people against the tech giants that keep trampling them. It’s a classic underdog setup, except the underdog is a regular person and the opponent has endless lawyers and a server farm.
The show’s central mystery centers on a whistleblower who wants to sue over an A.I. that had its safety guardrails removed, and the twist is that the whistleblower might actually be the A.I. itself. The Kings have said the scripts kept predicting real headlines, and both creators openly joke about friends who brag about using A.I., which gives the show an edge that feels personal. No pushback from CBS, Paramount, Warner Bros. or Skydance, which is a surprise given how touchy the subject is.
So what do we do with a drama that makes A.I. anxiety feel like appointment television? We watch, and then we argue about it. Have you been following along, and do you think tech companies should face real legal consequences when their algorithms cause harm?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.