What happens when a playwright with a degree in cognitive science turns his gaze toward Silicon Valley?
You get Data, a razor sharp, unnervingly timely new play that feels like it was written yesterday even though it wasn’t.
Matthew Libby, born and raised in Los Angeles and educated at Stanford before earning his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, has been thinking about artificial intelligence long before it became a Super Bowl commercial buzzword. In fact, he has been developing Data since 2018, the same play he brought with him into grad school.
“I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer,” Libby shares. “But the only thing more important than knowing how to write is having stuff to write about.” At Stanford, that “stuff” became cognitive science and an academic deep dive into AI, years before ChatGPT entered everyday vocabulary.
From Silicon Valley to the Stage
Libby describes Data as rooted in his coming of age experience in Silicon Valley, a world where the tech industry does not just seem appealing but inevitable.
“There’s this sense that it’s not only the best thing to do, it’s the only thing to do,” he explains.
While briefly considering a tech career, Libby interviewed at Palantir, a powerful data analytics company that contracts with governments and enterprises. He did not get the internship, but the experience stayed with him. Years later, headlines about immigration policy and data driven enforcement brought that company back into sharp focus. The fictional corporation in Data echoes those real world giants.
“I think if the play does anything,” Libby says, “I hope it makes people aware of how much of this is actually happening.”
Demystifying the Machine
One of the most striking elements of Data is not just its topicality but its clarity. Libby is not interested in treating AI as a mystical black box or an alien intelligence descending upon humanity.
“AI isn’t inherently good or bad,” he says. “It’s a tool. A hammer isn’t good or bad. It depends on how it’s used.”
For Libby, writing the play became an act of demystification. He hopes audiences walk away with language, vocabulary to articulate the concerns they may already feel but struggle to define.
“These systems are the result of thousands of human decisions,” he explains. “They’re not gods. They’re not perfect. They reflect human values and human biases.”
In a world where AI often feels like electricity, inevitable and unstoppable, Data insists on something radical: understanding.
A Play About Dehumanization
Without giving away spoilers, Libby is clear about what the play is truly about.
“It’s a play about dehumanization,” he says. “How we dehumanize each other and how we dehumanize ourselves.”
In an increasingly technological world, he suggests, we are often encouraged to reduce ourselves to metrics, productivity, and data points. Data explores how that mindset operates at the governmental level, within workplaces, and inside our most personal relationships.
But it does not stop at diagnosis.
“The end of the play is about breaking out of that cycle,” Libby shares. “It’s about returning to inherent humanity. Realizing that there are some things that can’t be put into an algorithm, that we are not our data.”
That final turn from critique to reclamation is where the play lands its emotional punch.
An Unintentional AI Trilogy
Data is not Libby’s only foray into artificial intelligence. In fact, he has realized he has created an unofficial trilogy:
The Machine, set in the past and exploring generative AI
Data, set in the present and focused on predictive and analytical AI
Sisters, set in the future and imagining sentient AI
All three were written before the explosion of public AI tools, making them less reactive and more foundational in their inquiry.
“I’m going to pretend it was intentional,” he jokes. “But taken together, I think they say everything I want to say about living in an AI infused world.”
What to Talk About on the Way Home
Audiences have already been telling Libby how timely the play feels, but he gently reminds them that these questions have been with us for years.
“I’m not a prophet,” he says. “I just pay attention.”
As Data continues its run through March 29, Libby hopes theatergoers leave not only shaken but curious. Curious enough to research. Curious enough to question. Curious enough to examine the ways they may be flattening themselves, or others, into something less human.
Data is at the Lucille Lortel Theatre through March 29, 2026
Tickets at https://www.datatheplay.com/
