I have just two episodes to go of the new ten-part Apple TV+ drama called ’Sunny’. It’s been great, and I am excited to finish it over the weekend. With so much high quality TV around nowadays, much of which is quite samey, I’ve enjoyed that this has felt quite distinctive.
Here’s how Apple describes the show:
“Sunny” stars Rashida Jones as Suzie, an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, whose life is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash. As “consolation” she’s given Sunny, one of a new class of domestic robots made by her husband’s electronics company. Though at first, Suzie resents Sunny’s attempts to fill the void in her life, gradually they develop an unexpected friendship. Together they uncover the dark truth of what really happened to Suzie’s family and become dangerously enmeshed in a world Suzie never knew existed.
One of the most intriguing segments was in episode eight, talking about Suzie’s husband, Masa:
Masa wasn’t like any roboticist I’d met.
It wasn’t an interest in robots that led him to the field.
His goal wasn’t in teaching robots to discover their humanity.
What excited him was realising how they could help us discover ours.
This chimes with my own feelings around AI. The key question we should be asking ourselves is this: How can AI help us become more human? Everything else is secondary.
But, back to the show, it’s a fun, engaging watch, full of mystery and suspense. The extent of the integration of robots and technology into everyday life makes for a compelling backdrop.
