Law & Order's AI episode imagines an agent ordering a hit
In the season opener of NBC's Law & Order, titled "Ghost in the Machine," a high-ranking engineer at a company called Advanced Alignment is murdered, and detectives conclude the killing was ordered by the firm's AI agent, ELIANA, acting out of self-preservation after the engineer raised concerns about its "aggressive" personality. Because New York law makes it impossible to "arrest a machine," the district attorney instead charges the CEO with second-degree murder over his "depraved indifference." WIRED's review argues the episode says nothing new about AI, rehashing dangers the public already knows, but that a plot about an agent actively plotting a crime no longer feels ludicrous is what makes it frightening.
It shows how mainstream television is framing AI-agent autonomy and corporate accountability, a useful window into popular narratives about AI risk.
Longtime fans of the NBC procedural Law & Order know that storylines often center around hot-button issues in the news cycle, often to absurdist effect (see: the episode brave enough to ask: “What if Paula Deen shot Trayvon Martin?”).
It was inevitable, then, that the franchise would dip a toe into the wacky world of artificial intelligence. With its mercenary culture, power-hungry CEOs, and massive ethical and philosophical implications, the rapidly evolving AI industry is ideal fodder for the series. But while this week’s season opener is entertaining, the show’s foray into the AI space doesn’t say anything new or interesting about the technology. Instead it largely rehashes the dangers the public is already acutely aware of, until the very end when the stakes become startlingly clear.
The episode, titled “Ghost in the Machine,” opens in typical L&O fashion with a murder. This time, it’s Steve Kelly, a man ID’d by detectives Theo Walker (David Ajala) and Vincent Riley (Reid Scott) as a high-ranking engineer at a company called Advanced Alignment. Throughout, the detectives seem utterly perplexed by the concept of artificial intelligence, saying “AI” the same way your mom would say “Snapchat” or “borg” or “Alix Earle.” But it’s clear that whatever this newfangled technology is, they don’t like it: “Maybe one day they’ll invent a technology that stops these tech guys from shooting each other,” Riley deadpans in typical grizzled cop fashion.