‘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 “Breaking Bad”) 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. “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” star Rhea Seehorn, who plays a romantasy author confronting an alien invasion.