Based on the Swedish series ‘Real Humans’
the Swedish synths, called hubots, have shiny make-up and obvious
wigs, whereas the synths look basically human.
Written by the British team Sam Vincent and
Jonathan Brackley, based on the award-winning Swedish science fiction drama
Real Humans, the series explores the themes of artificial intelligence and
robotics, focusing on the social, cultural, and psychological impact of the
invention of anthropomorphic robots called "synths."
For one week in May 2015, the series was
marketed using a fake shopfront for Persona Synthetics on London's Regent
Street, inviting passers-by to create their own synth using interactive
screens, and employing actors who pretended to be synths around central London.
An accompanying Channel 4 trailer for the series in the style of an advert for
Persona featured "Sally," a robotic servant described as "your
new best friend."
The show focuses on the human side of
artificial intelligence and what it means to be human, it ventures past the
stereotypical questions about AI and asks what it means to be human and do AI’s
have rights. The AI’s go beyond their controlled capabilities and develop human
qualities such as empathy and compassion, which is a problem for the manufacturers
so they try to hunt the problematic ‘synths’.
