The Americans alumna Annet Mahendru has signed on to Syfy’s artificial intelligence drama pilot The Machine in a regular role.

The Machine, from Universal Cable Productions, is set in a world that is being transformed by the emergence of artificial intelligence. The project explores the epic conflict between man and technology through the lives and motivations of six interwoven characters – each of whom holds the key to humanity’s victory or its destruction.

Mahendru will play Yana, a brilliant but troubled programmer who has created the world’s first super intelligent Artificial Intelligence. With an IQ 500 times greater than Einstein, this S.A.I. is capable of conquering the world’s most complex problems, such as disease, poverty, and environmental devastation. But Yana begins to suspect that instead of helping humanity, this new intelligence wants to destroy it. With her superiors under the S.A.I.’s thrall, Yana must overcome her personal demons and outwit the greatest intellect the world has ever known.

Mahendru, praised for her recently-wrapped role as Nina on The Americans, most recently recurred on Tyrant. Her other previous TV credits include The Following, The X-Files, Grey’s Anatomy, White Collar and The Blacklist. She’s repped by Paradigm and Bohemia Group.