Why Pluribus Creator Vince Gilligan Included An Anti-AI Message In The End Credits

Anyone watching Vince Gilligan's new Apple TV show "Pluribus" might have noticed a terse but firm anti-AI message in the series' credits. "This show was made by humans," reads the line, which is, unfortunately, likely to become a more widespread disclaimer as we hurtle towards the AI garbage future touted by the likes of Joe Russo. Gilligan, however, will clearly be on the opposite side of the debate to Mr. Russo. The showrunner has now elaborated on his views and likened AI-generated material to "a cow chewing its cud — an endlessly regurgitated loop of nonsense."

In a Variety interview, Gilligan said "I hate AI," before explaining his specific gripes with the technology. "AI is the world's most expensive and energy-intensive plagiarism machine" he explained, and he's not wrong. According to Business Insider, large AI data centers not only consume vast amounts of power compared to their traditional counterparts, they also have power-hungry cooling systems which, according to an Environmental and Energy Study Institute report, require up to 5 million gallons of water per day to run. "I think there's a very high possibility that this is all a bunch of horses**t," Gilligan added. "It's basically a bunch of centibillionaires whose greatest life goal is to become the world's first trillionaires. I think they're selling a bag of vapor."

It's a refreshingly candid take from Gilligan, who has never been shy about calling it as he sees it, having used his 2025 WGA speech to clarify that he doesn't want to be remembered for creating Walter White. While that particular notion has some interesting counter-arguments, it's hard to argue with Gilligan's AI views, which perfectly encapsulate everything wrong with our modern day media landscape and the long-term trajectory of our culture.

Including an Anti-AI message in a show made by the biggest tech company in the world is a risk. But that's exactly what Vince Gilligan did with "Pluribus," which happens to be a superb and intriguingly peculiar sci-fi series. The show features former "Better Call Saul" star Rhea Seehorn as a novelist of tawdry romantic novels who's suddenly confronted with a world full of placid, contented drones after an alien virus infects the global populace. The parallels with our modern age are quite obvious, and for Gilligan, AI will only make things worse.

"Do you want to be fed a diet of crap?" he asked during his Variety interview. "Is there enough calories in a diet of crap to keep you alive? The answer is yeah, probably. You could eat it." Aside from our inability to push back against the "diet of crap," Gilligan remains cautious about the looming threat of the singularity — a moment whereby artificial intelligence becomes superintelligent and transcends all human capability. "If they ever achieve that, then the whole discussion of slavery has to come back into the forefront of the conversation," Gilligan added. "These trillionaires are going to want to make money on this thing that is now conscious. Is it then a slave? At that point, it is a truly sentient being, and these Silicon Valley a**holes are going to monetize this against its own will, right?"

Why, then, did Gilligan not use his latest sci-fi series to take aim at such an idea? Because, as he put it, "that's been done to death." Still, it's surely an increasingly relevant trope given everything Gilligan has said, and it feels like he's the man who could give us the quintessential AI takedown.

It's not just the "Pluribus" creator that's happy to share his anti-AI message. Star Rhea Seehorn also spoke out against the supposed "actress" Tilly Norwood, which is essentially just an AI chatbot with a digital avatar. The controversial AI-generated "actress" caused a stir when it was revealed that her creators were looking for representation for their abomination. "I'm fine going on the record that I don't think any agencies should represent that AI actress," Seehorn told Variety. "Shame on them!"

The actor went on to talk about how human experience is really the entire point of art and that AI will never be able to replace that. "Even if a computer could make you think there was impasto brushwork there," she noted, in reference to the idea of an AI generated painting, "the reason the painting is moving is because of the human experience that went into transferring that art onto the canvas. That matters to me. I think it matters to most people."

It certainly matters to Gilligan, who sees a bleak future ahead wherein the U.S. will allow the proliferation of AI in order to outpace China. "Thank you, Silicon Valley!" he remarked. "Yet again, you've f***** up the world." Elsewhere, the "Pluribus" creator was a tad more measured, telling Deadline, "It's just that, as this technology progresses, I don't see how it will make the world a better place, but maybe it will, because I'm wrong more than I'm right." Still, he praised Guillermo del Toro for his recent comment about how he'd "rather die" than use AI. "I love what a genius he is," Gilligan added. "Please quote me on that, because he's an international treasure."

"Pluribus" is streaming on Apple TV.