TV shows fail to capture real AI anxieties plaguing society

Television shows are increasingly featuring artificial intelligence storylines, but their portrayals fall short of capturing the real-world complexities and anxieties surrounding the technology. While AI appears across genres from workplace dramas to sci-fi series, none of the 2025 programming effectively addresses the genuine societal disruptions AI is creating—from job displacement to deepfakes threatening personal dignity.

The big picture: Hollywood’s treatment of AI has become disconnected from reality just as the technology reaches critical mass in society.

• Shows like “Black Mirror,” once the gold standard for tech commentary, have devolved into “fantastical larks” that ignore contemporary AI debates.
• Meanwhile, real-world AI developments—including predictions that half of entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear by 2030—offer more compelling drama than anything on television.

What you should know: Current TV shows approach AI with varying degrees of sophistication, but most miss the mark.

• “The Morning Show” treats AI as a “recurring, shapeshifting threat,” featuring buggy Olympic translation tools and privacy-breaching chatbots.
• “St. Denis Medical” explores physician resistance to AI diagnostic tools, while “English Teacher” reveals data harvesting through “smart” trash cans.
• “The Studio” depicts industry backlash against AI animation, reflecting real Hollywood tensions.

Why traditional approaches fall short: Shows either treat AI as pure fantasy or focus on surface-level workplace disruptions rather than deeper societal implications.

• “Black Mirror’s” 2025 episode “Hotel Reverie” features “nonsensical” technology where consciousness uploads enable time-travel romance.
• Even sympathetic portrayals like “Murderbot”—featuring an android security guard who prefers binge-watching shows—fail to address contemporary concerns.

The exception: “Alien: Earth,” set in the 22nd century, most effectively channels current AI anxieties by depicting a world where corporations have replaced governments.

• The show features “callous, self-involved plutocrats” exploiting workers through 65-year labor contracts.
• This dystopian corporate control mirrors concerns about tech billionaires accumulating unprecedented power through AI development.

What’s really happening: Reality has outpaced fiction in disturbing ways that demand serious artistic engagement.

• AI firms command nine-figure pay packages for top researchers while predicting massive job losses.
• Deepfake technology has forced Robin Williams’ and Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughters to plead with the public to stop creating fake videos of their fathers.
• Reports emerge daily of “chatbots becoming objects of romantic obsession, pushing users toward psychotic breaks, or encouraging teen-agers to kill themselves.”

The bottom line: As one commentator noted, “this is the worst the technology will ever be”—meaning Hollywood must urgently confront and compete with an AI reality that’s already stranger than fiction.