Years before Westworld and the most visionary episodes of Black Mirror, Person of interest offered a fairly precise prophetic vision of our technological present, both in relation to mass surveillance and the use of artificial intelligence to analyze large volumes of data as well as the dependence on algorithms for decision-making.

Created in 2011 by Jonathan Nolan (Interstellar, Fallout, Westworld), the series follows the story of Harold Finch (Michael Emerson), a billionaire programmer who has developed "The Machine," an artificial intelligence capable of predicting acts of terrorism and violent crimes in New York by monitoring all electronic communications.

To carry out its mission of preventing these crimes, Finch recruits John Reese (Jim Caviezel), a former CIA agent, who becomes the enforcer of this secret justice.

Over five seasons, the series explores the ethical dilemmas and implications of using advanced artificial intelligence for mass surveillance. Something that reaches new levels of complexity when a rival AI called "Samaritan" emerges, representing a more dystopian vision of how this technology could be used to control and manipulate society.

A visionary series

The series was a pioneer in exploring topics such as the use of AI in global security long before these debates were at the center of current technological and political discussions.

The premise that an AI monitors all our movements raises questions about the balance between freedom and surveillance, something very relevant in the era of "big data" and the growing concern for privacy in the digital world. Person of Interest also questions how modern societies are willing to sacrifice privacy for security.

This same discussion has become increasingly relevant after revelations like those of Edward Snowden in 2013, where it was confirmed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was conducting mass surveillance on citizens' communications.

With "Samaritan," the series shows how this technology has the ability to manipulate social and political events to impose absolute control over society. While (fortunately) we have not yet reached that level, there are concerns about the power algorithms have to influence elections, manipulate public opinion, and create information bubbles, as happened with the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2016.

Person of Interest is a science fiction thriller with real ethical dilemmas that presents many concepts that are now part of everyday reality, but above all, it is an exciting, entertaining, and addictive action series. We recommend discovering it.

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence