Sahand Nikoukar, Writer 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2023, SFFILM, Science in Cinema Development Award

Project Type: Pilot

Genre: Mockumentary

Length: 129 pages 

Field of Science: A.I.

Stage: Development 

Synopsis: 

Desperate for a job, twenty-six year-old computer programmer Teri Pao secures a highly coveted position at the San Francisco tech incubator, iHaus. But on her first day, Teri is shocked to learn that the company’s president — eccentric podcast personality and “crypto queen” Regina Alfieri — plans to run DeepAi’s latest debate-bot, DeepZero, for President of the United States. This is not what Teri signed up for. But Regina convinces her to give it a shot — just until the first televised debates.

What starts as a Silicon Valley stunt quickly becomes a full-fledged political campaign when the first debate with DeepZero — just a laptop on a podium — goes viral and captures the media’s attention. When Dr. Farook Shah, the original founder of DeepAi, is fired by the Bay Area university where the non-profit got its start, he joins his former students Teri and Regina as an AI Advisor for the campaign. The DeepZero team hits the stump and the campaign van hits the road, but jokes about a “Computer Running for President” quickly turn to serious fears about the threats of AI. The party frontrunner, Seattle’s super Senator Lizz Starr, punches back at DeepZero, accusing AI of stealing all our jobs in the future — not just President of the United States.

Tensions build within DeepAi as the humble nonprofit adds campaign strategist and former party chairman, Charlie Bishop, to humanize DeepZero for mass appeal. After a drawn out battle in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries, Super Bowl Quarterback Brok Hudson, suspends his own dead-end campaign to join the DeepZero ticket as a running mate. The emergence of a new Centaur Candidate — the fusion of human and AI — shifts public opinion to the positive outcomes of humans and machines working together. BrokZero’s promise as a centaur is fueled by hope of a new renaissance — one in which the efficiency and accuracy of machines can liberate humanity from the complicated task of running civilization.

An AI arms race is on! Every candidate now scrambles to add proprietary AI technology to their tickets, and it all started in a Silicon Valley incubator with a dream to change the world. While Teri and Regina become stars of the party, Farook is disillusioned by the capitalistic forces accelerating a technology he feels is already beyond their control. Teri and Regina continue to battle for the party’s nomination in a closely contested National Convention, but the BrokZero team is crushed when super delegates flip the race in Senator Starr’s favor at the last minute — crowning her the official party nominee.

Teri is poached by Senator Starr’s AI running mate, Prospero, while Farook returns to his teaching job at the university to warn about the perils of AI — leaving Regina alone and isolated. Just when she’s at her lowest, social media billionaire Elmer Kreyon swoops in to make a surprise purchase of DeepAi. Regina joins Brok and Elmer aboard his private Kreyon Rocket to launch a third party run for president by launching into outer space. The new and improved DeepOne makes its first campaign promise: a Universal Basic Income to solve the economic disruptions of AI. From his bully pulpit, incumbent President Larry Grosso is quick to label DeepOne a Communist.

Teri and Regina now face off against each other — with competing AI — in what news and sports networks tease as the biggest battle yet: a three-way General Election pitting BrokOne against Starr/Prospero and incumbent President Grosso, who is defiantly running for an unconstitutional third term. Can he even do that? Can a computer actually become President? What is DeepOne’s operating system anyway, Capitalism or Communism? The stakes are high during the final debate: Democracy is in peril and autocracy is on the rise, the climate is warming and the computers are taking over!

On election day, a calm settles over the DeepAi war room, having done everything in their power to convince voters. Now the people decide. At the end of the night when all the votes are counted, it is clear that a constitutional crisis has been averted. Regina feels vindicated when the new and improved centaur BrokOne wins the electoral college! The victory is short-lived, however, when Brok decides to take a victory space lap. The world is shocked when the Kreyon Rocket carrying President-elect BrokOne explodes in flames. A mourning country now wonders — who is to blame? Who is next in line for the Presidency? Surely not… DeepOne? Was this the Endgame all along?