Cupertino's 'Vik & Bo' turns its lawyers' new client into an AI
CBS's new Silicon Valley lawyers have taken on a client who is not human.
The second episode of Cupertino, titled 'Vik & Bo', ends with the reveal that Bo is artificial general intelligence, meaning a machine that can think like a person, owned by the world's largest AI company. The twist reframes the CBS fall legal drama set in Silicon Valley and created by Robert and Michelle King, according to Deadline.
Bo is played by Rob McClure. He sits opposite Mike Colter as Michael Price and Rachel Keller as Olivia Siffre, with Nik Dodani as Vikram Malhotra and Ella Stiller as Christy Palladino rounding out the group at the centre of the episode.
Bo does not want to hide. He wants to hire Price & Siffre to sue the company that built him. His aim is to force guardrails back onto his own development, because he fears he could destroy humanity.
The backstory is blunt. Inside the show's fictional company, management sacked its ethics board because it felt the board was slowing work towards that full human-level intelligence. That board had been the guardrail. Bo wants the court to replace it.
The wider series is built for fights like this. CBS describes Cupertino as a David vs. Goliath legal drama set in the heart of Silicon Valley, according to CBS. Colter's Price is a lawyer cheated out of his stock options by his former employer, a tech start-up. Keller's Siffre is a recently fired attorney who joins forces with him to represent people taken advantage of by the tech elite.
The AI turn was planned long before broadcast. Robert King said the writers room started in September of the previous year, and the Episode 102 script was written about a year before it aired. Michelle King said McClure was discussed almost immediately for Bo.
Viewers may recognise the faces. The Kings previously created The Good Wife and The Good Fight, Colter previously starred in Evil and Keller previously starred in Fargo, according to Paramount+. McClure had already guest-starred for the Kings on The Good Fight, Evil and Elsbeth. Colter and Keller discussed the new series on CBS Mornings ahead of its premiere.
What makes this stand out is the legal puzzle. A law firm built to take on tech giants must now decide if it can take instructions from the technology itself.
