In a 2002 TV Guide Magazine commemorating the 35th anniversary of Star Trek (1966), I, Borg ranked 5th among the greatest episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh) was a fan of Star Trek (1966) while growing up, and jumped at a chance to be on The Next Generation. He had auditioned for the role of Wesley Crusher, but when it was given to Wil Wheaton he was so disappointed that he refused to watch "The Next Generation" until he got the chance to guest star on it. He joked that prior to taking the assignment, a friend warned him that he would be asked about it for years afterwards, which indeed proved to be the case.
The title is a reference to I, Robot (1964). It had a similar story of a robot believed to have evil intentions but as the story progressed, he was discovered to be very human with many human ideals. The title is also a reference to Isaac Asimov's short story collection I, Robot, (upon which the movie was based) which dealt with similar themes of a single unit of a collective consciousness discovering free will and identity.
This story establishes that Borg are designated by numbers, in relation to small groups (e.g., Third of Five, Seven of Nine, etc.). Hugh's designation, "Third of Five", is different from other Borg names (such as Seven of Nine) in that he uses the ordinal ("Third") rather than the cardinal number ("Three").
I, Borg was Michael Piller's favorite episode of the fifth season of TNG. He called it "everything I want Star Trek to be."