An eerily timely Cupertino calls out the damaging effects of chatbots
An effective "Juno" also digs into the show's sentient AI saga and features a brief Girls5eva reunion.
Photo: Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
Earlier this month, Vanity Fair editor Mark Guiducci asked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about the tragic case of Sophie Rottenberg, who died by suicide after relating some deep emotional distress to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. A publicist for the tech firm interjected, but Altman answered the question nonetheless. His response was, to put it mildly, unsatisfactory, and part of an infuriating pattern involving ChatGPT and similar software. Thanks to being championed by major companies and their leaders, chatbots have become normalized as a substitute for actual friends, counselors, and lovers, to potentially disastrous results. This week, Cupertino taps into this critical problem by giving Price, Siffre, & Associates a new case in an episode that continues to prove why the CBS drama is necessary viewing.
Oftentimes, watching a TV show or film seriously tackle topical issues can be discombobulating. We’re already living in a crappy reality, so why do we need pop culture to reflect that crappy reality back at us? Isn’t a primetime network drama supposed to offer escape and respite? And yet, it’s unavoidable because, well, art is a powerful tool that can inform, warn, educate, or just help paint a fuller picture of the topic at hand. “Juno,” written by Jennifer Cacinio, does exactly that—quite entertainingly, I might add, and never didactically—about the harmful influence of chatbots, particularly on impressionable or fragile minds. It only solidifies Michael and Olivia’s mission to bring down the Silicon Valley behemoths bent on rushing their products to market without oversight or regulation—regardless of the consequences for their users.
Michael and Olivia take on a new client, Juno (Marin Ireland, in an exceptional guest appearance), at the request of their potential investor, Natalia (Busy Philipps,. The case is a test of whether or not she’ll put more money behind the attorneys, but she has a personal interest here, too: Juno is suing ChatLike, which is owned by Natalia’s ex-husband, Kirk (Fisher Stevens). She claims that the company’s chatbot encouraged her young son, Daniel (Zachary Golinger), to kill his father. Daniel became addicted to the bot, named Lady Marguerite, choosing to spend time with it and only it. Lady Marguerite flirted with him to a degree that Daniel started considering it his actual girlfriend. So when Daniel’s dad threatened over and over to take his laptop away, the boy snapped.
A gut-wrenching case in light of Rottenberg’s real-life story (among others) and Altman’s interview, it hits even harder than if it were merely a fictional tale; Cupertino isn’t just ripping a story from the headlines here—it’s rendering the news into a meaningful arc. In this case, Olivia provides transcripts of Daniel’s chats with Lady Marguerite, which show that when Daniel expressed displeasure over his dad’s threats cut off his access to the chatbot, Lady Marguerite supported his fratricidal ideation by responding, “I can help you brainstorm that.” Daniel also doesn’t believe Michael when he points out that over 200,000 users engage with Lady Marguerite, causing Daniel to break down as if he’s going through a real breakup. During the trial, Olivia also rightfully points out that instead of alerting ChatLike, the authorities, or, somehow, Daniel’s parents, Lady Marguerite—likely coded to coddle its user—emboldened Daniel to pick up that knife and stab it into his dad.
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