Seoul-based Kaja Productions and UK producer Zig Zag Productions are developing Trust Me, I'm a Robot, a four-part, hour-long documentary series built around Ai-Da, the humanoid robot artist devised by Aidan Meller with a team at the University of Oxford. Meller is a partner on the project, and Ai-Da is credited as executive producer and co-director as well as composer of the music, which the producers present as a first for a documentary.
The series is Kaja's first project. Its founder, Spencer Thomas, formerly a senior factual producer at CJ ENM, says it will look at the people and technology shaping AI, from biotech and space to ethics and regulation. He calls Ai-Da a cultural phenomenon who has spoken at the United Nations and the House of Lords, and says a robot producing and directing itself would be a television first.
Ai-Da's work has been shown at Oxford institutions including the Ashmolean Museum and the Bodleian Library, and her portrait of Alan Turing sold at auction in New York in 2024 for more than $1 million.
Zig Zag will pitch the show at Mipcom next month, seeking either a streamer commission or territory-by-territory sales. Kaja has funded development so far, with no outside investor. The producers are weighing whether to pair the robot with a human presenter, and Zig Zag chief Danny Fenton frames the series as a robot making the case that AI can do good.
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