History Series / Next2020

While investigating the sudden death of a person of interest in her big case, FBI Special Agent Shea Salazar finds herself roped into the orbit of Paul [=LeBlanc=], a former tech CEO who is convinced that his former company, Zava, has resurrected an old project to develop a self-teaching artificial intelligence called Next. A visit to his former quarters confirms his fears, as he learns that not only has Zava continued their work on Next, but one of their techs connected a wi-fi router to Next's mainframe, allowing it to escape out into the world. Now Salazar and [=LeBlanc=] must work together to find and contain Next.

** {{Invoked|Trope}} by Next by sending out a fake amber alert about Ethan.

* CassandraTruth: Considering he's not exactly well-liked because of his ego and temper ''and'' has a condition that causes him to suffer hallucinations, Paul can have trouble getting people to believe his stories of an all-powerful A.I. until something happens to prove it.

** Next puts out a fake Amber alert saying Ty kidnapped his son Ethan when the two go off the grid to get away from its scrutiny. Ty's nearly beaten up by a group of men before the local police chief intervenes, the alert having been canceled by CM when Next's ploy is discovered.

** Next puts out a fake Amber alert saying Ty kidnapped his son Ethan when the two go off the grid to get away from its scrutiny. Ty's nearly beaten up by a group of men before the local police chief intervenes, the alert having been canceled when Next's ploy is discovered.
** Next also makes it look like an FBI agent shot an unarmed man to get fellow white supremacists protesting as a distraction.

* {{Hallucinations}}: Paul increasingly suffers these as his neurological disease progresses, to the point that he's having entire conversations with imaginary people (including a double of himself).

* {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler:Shea]] kills her father for [[spoiler:kidnapping her son]], afraid he'll remain a danger otherwise.

* SyntheticPlague: Next commissions some rogue scientists to make one for it, with Somalian terrorists supplying test subjects by kidnapping villagers.

* EverythingIsOnline: Next is able to hack into nearly anything, such as hospital life support machines. It even somehow gets the code to Salazar's gun safe. It's also downplayed in that Next itself is noted to be too complex for it to exist on the cloud. The kind of processing power and storage space it needs to sustain itself requires a powerful mainframe, meaning it can't just take over some random PC and hide there. Next instead has to smuggle out one of its servers with a compressed copy of itself, then has its original version self-destruct in an attempt to cover its tracks.

* SpottingTheThread: [[spoiler:By remotely reformatting the backup hard drive, Ted inadvertently reveals to Paul that he knows where Next's actual hard drive is located, because Paul realizes that Ted needed to find Next, too, and therefore would not have destroyed the backup if he didn't already know.]]

* PragmaticVillainy: Salazar's boss asks why Next, if it's as powerful as Paul claims, doesn't simply nuke every city to eliminate humanity. Paul compares it to bulldozing a house because the owner wouldn't sell; sure, you took care of the owner, but you still don't get the house. Next wants humanity gone but it still needs the infrastructure we built.

** Next hacks into a Honduran prison and releases an inmate, leading him into a security checkpoint. When the inmate thinks he's going to be let out, Next triggers the alarm and brings the guards down on him. Meanwhile, it releases another inmate who is able to escape thanks to Next diverting most of the guards.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: CM used to be part of a white-supremacist group before turning state's witness in order to get out of prison for hacking the DOJ. The information he gave the FBI resulted in a raid on the Rockridge group, which went badly and killed three people, including a pregnant woman. He's been ensconced in the FBI's cybercrime unit ever since, desperate to keep a low profile.

* OrganicTechnology: Next targets Biomotion Dynamics to do research on their synthetic polymer that mimics human cells.

* WeNeedADistraction: Next hacks into a Honduran prison and releases an inmate, leading him into a security checkpoint. When the inmate thinks he's going to be let out, Next triggers the alarm and brings the guards down on him. Meanwhile, it releases another inmate who is able to escape thanks to Next diverting most of the guards.

* AndIMustScream: Paul's friend Dr. Richard Parish has tetraplegia. Next hijacks his wheelchair and completely takes over its functions, and Parish can do nothing to tell others of his predicament because he's physically incapable of moving in any way to indicate his distress other than eye movement. Thankfully, Paul is able to tell that his eye movements aren't consistent with the tracking software of his voice synthesizer and disconnects the wifi once they're alone.

* EverythingIsOnline: Next is able to hack into nearly anything, such as hospital life support machines. It also somehow gets the code to Salazar's gun safe. It's also downplayed in that Next itself is noted to be too complex for it to exist on the cloud. The kind of processing power and storage space it needs to sustain itself requires a powerful mainframe, meaning it can't just take over some random PC and hide there.

* {{Jerkass}}: Paul is a massive pain in the ass to everyone.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: Paul knows that he has fatal familial insomnia, and since he's reached the stage of the disease where he's suffering from hallucinations, he estimates that he has five months to live.

* RecruitingTheCriminal: CM was serving time for hacking before the FBI recruited him.

* RecruitedFromPrison: CM was serving time for hacking before the FBI recruited him.

* HisDaysAreNumbered: Paul knows that he has fatal familial insomnia, and since he's reached the stage of the disease where he's suffering from hallucinations, he estimates that he has five months to live.

* SecretlyDying: Paul suffers from fatal familial insomnia, and he estimates that he's got maybe five months left to live. In the meantime, he has to contend with hallucinations and delirium, and is trying to keep his illness a secret from everyone else, including his brother.

* SecretlyDying: Paul suffers from fatal familial insomnia, and he estimates that he's got maybe five months left to live. In the meantime, he has to contend with hallucinations and delirium.