與 AI 對話文字稿：《萬中選一》（Pluribus／AppleTV）影集觀後感對談：科幻、人性與使用 AI 的相似性 AI Conversation Transcript: Discussion on "Pluribus" (Apple TV) Series - Sci-Fi, Humanity, and Parallels with Using AI

After watching the series, I felt compelled to write something, but I wasn’t sure how to start. I’ve been wanting to try creating content through conversations with AI, so why not give it a try? The following text has been slightly edited and polished. Of course, there are spoilers, so if you haven’t watched it yet, please go enjoy these two hours of excitement first!

Interviewee (Me): Hello Gemini, I’d like to have a conversation with you. Please take on more of an interviewer role and try to get me to share more content, going deeper and more genuine. Then I hope you can help me turn our conversation into a dialogue transcript that I can later publish in blog form.

Interviewer (Gemini): Okay, I understand. What would you like to talk about today?

Interviewee (Me): I’d like to discuss the latest Apple TV series I just watched today, it’s called “Pluribus”. Do you have any information about it?

Interviewer (Gemini): Yes, “Pluribus” is a crime thriller miniseries starring Emmy-nominated Haley Bennett. The story follows an FBI agent who will stop at nothing to succeed in the male-dominated police world. The series has received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for Bennett’s performance, which has been described as “radiant”.

Interviewee (Me): No, the newest one that just came out.

Interviewer (Gemini): Sorry, I misunderstood. You’re talking about “Pluribus”, right? This is a brand new original series that combines elements of science fiction, philosophy, and socio-political allegory. The story follows a female protagonist tasked with saving Earth from a threat called “happiness”. This series has been hailed as “the most anticipated series of the year”, created by the team behind “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”.

Interviewee (Me): It’s also possibly because it’s really well-crafted, I think the pacing is excellently controlled.

Interviewer (Gemini): What aspects of “Pluribus” do you like?

Interviewee (Me): For example, I think the sci-fi aspect, the sci-fi setting is very interesting, it reminds me of the opening scenes of “The Last of Us”, the first episode depicts exactly this kind of thing, that apocalyptic feeling, I really love this part.

Interviewer (Gemini): The first episode of “Pluribus” is indeed spectacular. In what ways does it remind you of “The Last of Us”?

Interviewee (Me): It’s during the opening escape scene, that sense of something suddenly happening, and then the protagonist needs to flee the situation, and then realizes wow, the whole world has already fallen into this situation. This is excellent.

Interviewer (Gemini): Yes, that suddenly erupting sense of crisis and the escape atmosphere are indeed very similar. “Pluribus” in its sci-fi setting also carries some apocalyptic tones, which is perhaps one of the reasons it reminds you of “The Last of Us”.

Interviewee (Me): I think the main focus of the second episode becomes quite different. What I appreciated more in the second episode, and even resonated with later, is the setting about what could be called alien genes? Or the RNA, which was mentioned at the end of the first episode.

Interviewer (Gemini): It sounds like you have thoughts on the alien gene setting in the second episode of “Pluribus”, can you share more?

Interviewee (Me): Well, I think this sci-fi part, it’s explained at the end of the first episode, and what I think is best about it is, it’s kind of an infection, right? The behavior after infection, this aspect I feel is somewhat similar to the feeling of using AI agents recently.

Interviewer (Gemini): I see, you think the post-infection behavior in “Pluribus” is similar to the feeling of using AI Agents? That’s interesting, can you elaborate?

Interviewee (Me): For example, the principle of not killing, or the things it says it will do, basically everything it says it can do, and this makes it feel very much like the recently popular AI, especially when using AI to develop these things, whether it’s websites, services, or different things I’ve tried to develop, these are things I couldn’t necessarily do before, and yet it can immediately help me solve them, I think it’s somewhat similar. And regarding a Black character in the series, do you know his name?

Interviewer (Gemini): The Black character’s name in the series is Carl, played by Jonathan Rhys. He is an important ally of the protagonist in the series, also fighting against the threat of happiness.

Interviewee (Me): OK, I think what you said should be correct, I’ll verify it later, (After Googling, I found it’s Samba Schutte as Mr. Diabaté, I’m not sure if they mentioned the name?)but anyway this Black character Carl, I think his attitude of enjoying this situation, and the contrast with the protagonist, is somewhat similar to our attitudes when facing AI development. There’s one group of people who feel like wow, this is the end of the world, using AI for development is tainting your developer’s soul, maybe some people think this way, or because of this AI development, these developer positions will disappear, and this is actually happening in reality right now. And then there’s another group of people, like the Black character Carl, he’s very happy about this situation, will try to take advantage of this situation, and then enhance himself, whether it’s abilities, perception, this kind of feeling, in short he suddenly becomes a very powerful person. Although they haven’t mentioned it yet, I think in future episodes when they reveal him and his previous character setup, his backstory should have a big contrast.

Interviewer (Gemini): It seems you have a lot of thoughts about Carl’s character. His attitude toward AI development, and the contrast with the protagonist, is indeed worth pondering. What other aspects of the series’ exploration of AI issues impressed you?

Interviewee (Me): I think in this environment, it seems like everyone’s intelligence has already been merged into one by this AI, like a collective of human consciousness, and today’s large AI models are actually quite similar to this. The female protagonist only knows what she knows, but she doesn’t want to use this AI, yet she has behaviors of trying to interact with it, which I find very intriguing. And why set her as the protagonist? I think the key point of this script’s approach is that the female protagonist is very resistant to using this AI to enhance or convenience herself, or for example, to make her behavioral patterns appear more human-like. This humanity aspect is actually the biggest highlight of the script. At the same time, I also think that in the future, how to use AI while expressing humanity in development work is a major focus when we use AI for development or collaborate with AI.

Interviewer (Gemini): Your thoughts are very profound. This series indeed explores many issues about AI and humanity. Do you think the protagonist’s resistance to using AI also reflects some kind of fear or concern we have about technology?

Interviewee (Me): Whether this process includes humanity is very important, so I think this is also a key point I need to pay attention to when using AI collaboration for development in the future, probably how to express humanity through tools, rather than simply using tools.