Murderbot‘s Creators on Letting AI Be the Good Guy for Once

Upcoming Apple TV+ series Murderbot takes place in a future where survey missions on distant planets are required to bring a Security Unit—a hulking robot created using mechanical and organic parts—as protection. Required, that is, by the all-powerful company that controls all the commerce in the galaxy. It’s a scary situation to contemplate, especially the part about being on an isolated planet with a powerful AI that has guns tucked into its arms. But Murderbot takes a surprising approach to that sci-fi trope. Adapted from the Murderbot Diaries books by Martha Wells, the show makes its potentially terrifying artificial construct the protagonist of the story (played by Alexander Skarsgård), and imagines that even after it hacks itself and gains free will, it would still look out for the puny humans in its midst. In a recent chat with io9 ahead of Murderbot‘s debut, creators, writers, directors, and executive producers Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz said there’s certainly optimism to be ... Read full article.