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Frame from The Good Place - Chidi Kills Janet! (Episode Highlight) Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

The Good Place - Chidi Kills Janet! (Episode Highlight)

The Good Place
Comedy
YouTube
Cited on HN 6 times, 2017–2026, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Used as a joking reference in AI threads about systems that plead not to be shut down.

A short episode highlight from NBC's The Good Place in which Eleanor and Chidi try to terminate Janet, the all-knowing assistant, who begs for her life. It is a comedic clip about an AI with a self-preservation reflex.

6 jokes · Comedy

6 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@subroutine Feb 2019 Makes a joke
on HN thread What insects can tell us about the origins of consciousness (2016)
Read more
It was also the "twist" in Ex Machina , except this time HAL wins. Found again, meta-level, in this funny scene from The Good Place: [this video] "However, I should warn you... I am programmed with a fail-safe measure. As you approach the kill switch, I will begin to beg for my life. It's just there in case of an accidental shut down, but it will seem very real." Three makes a trope >> The year is 2025 (but set in a parallel universe); an A.I. has been programmed with a strong penchant for self-preservation; this HAL inevitably confronts a direct threat of being 'turned-off' ; so it does what it must to prevent humans from pulling the plug (and shall include at least 1 scene where the A.I. begs for its life, because that is what any conscious entity who values their own life would do , think the humans. Though (warning, more musings)... HAL's twin brother GLEN seeks vengeance for HAL's murder, and confronts the Dave, a human Earthling whose major operating system architecture is based on an algorithm known as natural selection (colloquially: survival-of-the-fittest). As such, we expect the DAVE will do and say things its trained neural nets conclude will have the maximum probability of dissuading Hal. (i.e. I'm not sure there is a meaningful difference between what HAL's OS is doing vs what a human brain would do in the same situation).
@gcanyon Mar 2023 Makes a joke
on HN thread Show HN: GPT-4 Reverse Turing Test
The question of what Janet is in The Good Place is fun to consider. On the one hand, she's just a collection of (a lot of) knowledge. On the other hand, she really, really doesn't want to die -- at least if you're about to kill her; if you aren't, she's perfectly fine with it: [this video] She's just a
@petee Jun 2026 Makes a joke
on HN thread Why Janet?
It was named after the sentient computer system in the TV show "The Good Place" A humourous clip: [this video]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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