Artificial intelligence presents the pros and cons of Apple TV+’s new mystery series, ‘Sunny’, starring Rashida Jones

As an actress and writer, Rashida Jones has spent a lot of time thinking about artificial intelligence. The use of AI was a major topic on the negotiating table during last year’s Hollywood strikes. AI also takes center stage in its new series “Sunny” for Apple TV+.

“My feeling today, because it changes every day, is that this is already here and there is no turning back. There is an inevitability that we have to accept,” Jones said. “We need some kind of collective ethical parameters on how we use it because it is quite scary… It is out of our control at this point.”

In ‘Sunny,’ Jones plays Suzie, an expatriate in Japan whose husband Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima from “Drive My Car”) and her son Zen are missing after a plane crash. She is a talented child. A companion robot Suzie named Sunny as a condolence gift from Masa’s employer. Suzie is shocked to discover that Masa worked in robotics and programmed Sunny specifically with her in mind. She thought he worked in refrigeration technology. With Sunny by her side, Suzie begins to investigate who Masa really was, compared to who she thought he was. As she delves deeper into the mystery, Suzie discovers that in the wrong hands, the code to create robots like Sunny can be dangerous. Judy Ongg, Clumsy Annie, and Jun Kunimura also co-star in the film.

Katie Robbins adapted the TV series from Colin O’Sullivan’s novel “The Dark Manual.” She says that while the series has a certain optimism because of the connection Suzie feels with Sunny, it’s also a cautionary tale.

“What AI does over the course of this program is help people who are withdrawing into themselves and having trouble connecting with others. It’s beautiful,” Robbins said. “But because it’s a human creation, there’s also tremendous potential for it to be abused and used in dangerous ways.”

The speed with which AI developed in the real world while Robbins was writing the series was a surprise.

“When I was writing the show, I was working with an AI consultant and a roboticist and they were talking about this being on the horizon. And I was like, ‘You’re crazy. This show is science fiction. This is never going to happen. ’ And they were like, ‘Be careful. ’ And then while we were filming, ChatGPT came out and as a writer, I’m incredibly concerned about the capability of generative AI.”

In Jones’ scenes, Sunny was a less sophisticated robot that needed human assistance. Actress Joanna Sotomura was in a nearby tent, dubbing Sunny’s lines and making facial expressions that the robot mimicked. “That gave me a little bit of relief because I thought, ‘Oh, we’re so far away from this becoming an integral part of our lives,’” Jones joked. “There was a lot of effort, both in production and post-production, to get it to feel and look like a highly functional thing.”

So would Jones want to own a robot in real life?

“To comfort me emotionally? No. To fold laundry and wash dishes? Yes, very much,” she joked.