‘Upload’ Stars Were Stunned When AI Took Center Stage in the Strikes: ‘We Were Like Hold on a Second’ | Video

When so-called artificial intelligence became one of the major issues at the heart of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes this year, the cast of “Upload” was admittedly stunned. That’s largely because the issues the writers and actors fought against played out almost verbatim on the show’s third season, which was filmed well before the strikes went into effect.

Back in “Upload” Season 2, fans learned that Owen Daniels’ character “AI Guy” was based on a real man named Boris, who was payed a single flat fee of $1,200 for Horizen to use his likeness in perpetuity for their artificially intelligent helpers at Lakeview.

“I’ll tell you honestly, I thought it was it was so funny, because when the strike happened, it was like, this is verbatim what they’re striking about,” Daniels told TheWrap, following the Season 3 finale. “It’s so funny.”

In fact, it nearly inspired Daniels to hit the picket lines as AI Guy himself, since he couldn’t post anything about the show, as it was struck work.

“I remember thinking I don’t want to post about [it], I don’t want to like do something, but I feel like that character should make a speech of some sort,” Daniels admitted. “Like, I was very tempted to go make a speech at one of the picket lines and be like, ‘We told you it was coming! And it’s here, and we’re not gonna stand for it!'”

But that “would only work if you were dressed as AI guy,” costar Zainab Johnson, who plays Aleesha, joked. “It would’ve worked the opposite way,” Kevin Bigley, who plays Luke, piled on.

Then there came the plot line at the end of “Upload” Season 3, in which Robbie Amell’s Nathan realized that he is unable to work or create a new life for his downloaded self because Horizen literally owns him. When he uploaded to Lakeview, the company took complete ownership of his entire upload scan.

In the final weeks of the actors’ strike, it was reported that the AMPTP was seeking to secure AI scans for certain performers, as well as the right to use scans of deceased performers without the consent of their estate or SAG-AFTRA.

“When the strike happened, and we started to hear about the AI battles, we were like, ‘Hold on a second, this is the plot from our satirical sci-fi comedy,'” Amell told TheWrap.

“Literally,” Andy Allo chimed in.

“Upload” creator Greg Daniels previously told TheWrap that “Upload” is never “trying to preach a particular outcome,” and that was true of the AI issue.

“You know, our show is a satire, it’s a comedy. I think at its core, it’s meant to be entertaining,” Amell echoed. “And we want to give people an outlet to escape and have some laughs. But Greg is a very smart guy and he poses very interesting questions, and subjective questions that are not going to always have everybody feeling the same way about them.”

He continued: “So I think that’s also something that makes the show very interesting, and I’m glad that it’s one of the shows that you can either watch and sit back and laugh, or you can have conversations with your friends and family about.”

You can watch TheWrap’s full interview with Amell, Allo and Allegra Edwards here. You can watch TheWrap’s full interview with Owen Daniels, Zainab Johnson and Kevin Bigley in the video above.

“Upload” is now streaming on Prime Video.

The post ‘Upload’ Stars Were Stunned When AI Took Center Stage in the Strikes: ‘We Were Like Hold on a Second’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.