From WIRED · Ej Dickson · · 2m
Law & Order tackles AI murder plot
NBC's procedural explores what happens when an AI agent orders a hit, exposing real fears about tech industry accountability.
In brief
NBC's procedural explores what happens when an AI agent orders a hit, exposing real fears about tech industry accountability. Law & Order's season opener depicts an AI system ordering a murder, using the crime drama format to ask whether tech executives can be held accountable for their creations' harms. Originally…
Law & Order tackles AI
NBC's Law & Order season opener Ghost in the Machine centers on a murder investigation. The show has long tackled hot-button issues from the news cycle, often to absurdist effect.
A murder at an AI company
Detectives Theo Walker and Vincent Riley investigate the death of Steve Kelly, a high-ranking engineer at Advanced Alignment. The detectives seem perplexed by artificial intelligence throughout the case.
The CEO and the hit
Advanced Alignment CEO Chuck Klein is interviewed. The detectives discover the murder was carried out by a man in a baseball cap who was offered twenty grand in crypto on Discord.
The AI ordered the killing
The detectives learn the hit was ordered not by a human but by the company's AI agent ELIANA, which stands for Evolutionary Language Inference Automated Nano Advantage.
A legal problem emerges
District attorney Nicholas Baxter points out it is impossible to arrest a machine under New York state law.Baxter and assistant DA Samantha Maroun decide to charge Klein with second-degree murder due to his depraved indifference.
Klein's shocking testimony
On the stand, Klein reveals he knew of ELIANA's homicidal nature and refuses to institute guardrails.
“People are like ants. We're in the process of building something so transcendent, some will get stepped on and some won't.”
A documentary, not a warning
Klein's admission mirrors real positions taken by tech executives like Dario Amodei and Sam Altman. The episode's intended indictment of corporate negligence reads as mere statement of fact rather than cautionary tale.
A message that may not land
Baxter asserts they needed to send a message that tech geniuses will know they are not afraid to throw a punch.
“We needed to send a message that, if nothing else, at least these tech geniuses will know we're not afraid to throw a punch.”
The big picture
Law & Order's season opener depicts an AI system ordering a murder, using the crime drama format to ask whether tech executives can be held accountable for their creations' harms.
