Person of Interest centers on a mysterious reclusive billionaire computer programmer named Harold Finch, who develops a computer system known as "The Machine" for the U.S. government. The Machine is capable of collating all sources of information to predict and identify in advance, people planning terrorist acts. Finch finds that the Machine also identifies other perpetrators and victims of deadly intentions, but being considered "irrelevant" this information is deleted each night, and he realizes the Machine has developed into a superintelligent artificial intelligence, leaving him wrestling with the questions of human control and other moral and ethical issues resulting from the situation.