It’s hard to imagine anything that isn’t integrated with AI these days. It seems to have spread everywhere in just the last few years. At this pace, how long will it take for technology to produce fully lifelike human duplicates? Well, an underrated sci-fi series on ABC actually covered that exact topic a few years ago.
Emergence ran for one season on the network in 2019 and 2020. It revolved around AI humans, secretive billionaires, conspiracy theories, and cover-ups of unexplained phenomena. Sound familiar? Despite strong critical and audience reviews, Emergence was canceled after its first season. It left us on an unresolved cliffhanger just as it was starting to find its groove. It wasn’t your conventional sci-fi series, exploring the potential of AI long before anyone had heard of ChatGPT.
Emergence might not have made a mark because it was so ahead of its time. Just imagine the potential storylines if it had aired today. It’s the perfect show for sci-fi fans to rediscover in this new AI-dominated world. Let’s take a look at what made Emergence so special and why it deserves another look today.
What Happens in ‘Emergence’?
Emergence stars Allison Tolman as Jo Evans, the police chief of a small New York town. In the series premiere, Jo uncovers a plane crash with exactly one survivor. That survivor is an abandoned young girl whom Jo takes in. Strange events start to unfold after the plane crash. Government agents come to investigate the girl, whom Jo names Piper. Piper also starts exhibiting some troubling behavior herself. Behavior that suggests she is not quite fully human.
Throughout the season, Jo and her family try to protect Piper from everyone who comes after her. That includes the elusive Augur Industries, a tech firm launched by billionaire Richard Kindred. Augur experiments with AI technology, which wasn’t really something on most people’s minds when Emergence first aired. Some employees are apprehensive about what Augur’s technology can unleash, while others recognize its potential to benefit humanity. That includes artificially generating fully sentient and lifelike humans, which is where Piper comes in.
Jo’s family can reach some form of peace with Piper by the season’s end, but an ending teaser hinted that some of the more malicious AI creations are still out there. We never saw that cliffhanger resolved, as ABC cancelled Emergence after just one season. It didn’t meet the networks’ ratings expectations, despite being a critical and audience darling. In addition to Tolman, the cast included Alexa Swinton, Donald Faison, Terry O’Quinn, and Clancy Brown.
‘Emergence’ Was Ahead of Its Time With AI
Emergence was more than your by-the-numbers sci-fi series. It was one of the few contemporary shows to truly examine AI as a permanent presence in our lives. AI has been a concept for decades, but it’s only been part of the public mainstream for a couple of years now. ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity were only released between 2022 and 2023. AI has experienced an explosive growth in that short time. It can answer questions, generate photos and videos, and potentially one day cure diseases. Wouldn’t that be a better use of technology than those cringe Facebook memes? The speed at which AI has progressed in just two to three years is dizzying. Where will it be by 2030? Maybe fully AI-generated duplicates of humans aren’t as far off as Emergence wants us to believe.
That’s one of its key strengths. Emergence acknowledges both the positive and negative aspects of AI. On one hand, it could one day spiral out of control and rebel against its human creators. On the other hand, it can also generate humanlike companionship and connection for those who may not have loved ones in their lives. We can’t say whether AI itself is good or bad; only that it can be used for either purpose. Emergence was ahead of the game in exploring these concepts well before the chatbot era. It’s strange to think of 2020 as a different technological time, but when it comes to AI, it absolutely was.
What if Emergence were airing today? For one, the concepts wouldn’t seem as out there. Perhaps Augur Industries’ AI work would be less secretive. If everyone knows about AI, there’s no need to cover up your experiments with it. However, on the other hand, just as many people are vocally opposed to AI. That crowd could have added a fun, different dynamic to the show and set up more roadblocks and conflicts. Even in today’s hyper-AI world, there aren’t many shows that explore the concept to such a degree. The fact that Emergence was able to see the trend years earlier makes it truly one of the more unique sci-fi series of recent memory.
We’re not saying it will come back. It was an obscure one-season wonder from half a decade ago. Those types of shows typically do not get revived. But perhaps followers of AI — both fans and detractors — should take a look at this one. How much did it get right, and what other concepts would be different in today’s landscape? While Emergence isn’t currently available for free streaming, episodes can be purchased on Apple TV and Prime Video.