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'Next' Episode 1 Preview: Artificial Intelligence takes on a sinister tone in new Fox series

Paul LeBlanc, a former tech CEO, is called in to investigate a superintelligent AI after it is suspected of having committed murder

The internet has become a dangerous place, but one thing we can all depend on is the fact that human intelligence is limited. However, the right Artificial Intelligence — or in this case the wrong kind — does not have the same limits. With the world's personal information at its fingertips, an ability to get in and out of the prevalent automated systems scattered throughout the world, and no moralities holding it back, a rogue AI is one of the most dangerous things man could have created and it's up to Paul LeBlanc (John Slattery) to find a way to stop it.

The new FOX series sees a former tech CEO named Paul LeBlanc brought in as an expert by the FBI because of his previous warnings of a superintelligence. Why is Paul being called in now? Special agent Shea Salazar (Fernanda Andrade) believes his partner has been murdered by "Next" — an Artificial Intelligence that was supposed to have been isolated from the Internet but may just have gotten out. Now Paul is going to have to work with the FBI to find traces of Next out on the internet, and even a team of the FBI's best cybercrime division will always be two steps behind an AI that is quite literally inside the system. Will Paul be able to find Next in time to stop another murder, or worse? Find out, on the series premiere, only on Fox.

The official synopsis for the series reads: "From creator and executive producer Manny Coto ('24: Legacy'), executive producer Charlie Gogolak ('This Is Us') and executive producers and directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra ('This Is Us'), NEXT is a propulsive, fact-based thriller about the emergence of a deadly, rogue artificial intelligence that combines pulse-pounding action with a layered examination of how technology is invading our lives. The event series stars Emmy Award nominee John Slattery ('Mad Men') as a Silicon Valley pioneer, who discovers that one of his own creations — a powerful A.I. — might spell global catastrophe. He teams up with a cybercrime agent (Fernanda Andrade, 'The First') to fight a villain unlike anything we've ever seen — one whose greatest weapon against us is ourselves."

You can watch the trailer for the series below.

'Next' premieres on Fox at 9 pm ET on October 6.