“The age of artificial intelligence continues to be a modern ethical dilemma.”
Detective Gray Cooper is called to a government robotics lab, to investigate a data leak.
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00;00;05;01 - 00;00;33;16
Gray Cooper
I'm Gray Cooper, private detective. According to the Department of Homeland Security, my business doesn't exist. But according to the blockchain, a government address pays my bills. The following are the recordings of my case log for insurance purposes. You understand? See, I deal in the strange. The place where monsters and conspiracies dance. The kind of strange you're not quite sure is real or unreal.
00;00;34;12 - 00;01;13;10
Gray Cooper
Officially, the following case did not happen. I told you nothing. Welcome to The Strange Chronicles case log. 935 March 30th Year 2053. I arrived at the lab near Bloomington, Minnesota before sunrise. It was a frigid morning and the greeting inside the lab was not much warmer. I was made to leave everything but my clothing in a box of security, including my copy device.
00;01;13;25 - 00;01;41;12
Gray Cooper
I asked sarcastically if they'd be taking my firstborn child as I handed over the bobby pin for my hair. But security was like the Royal Guard. Not even a smirk of acknowledgment. This case was an inside job, a government request that felt more like a demand. I'm here to see Dr. Darwin Yin renowned A.I. developer. There's been a research leak and the government's relationship with Dr. Yin is fragile.
00;01;41;24 - 00;02;07;28
Gray Cooper
So they needed an outsider to investigate the leak. The IP on the leak led to Ted Darwin, Yin's prized robot. Ted stands for time elevated droid. Apparently. Dr. Yin is teaching Ted to see beyond time and imagines eventually it will be able to predict the future. Imagine a world without an element of surprise.
00;02;13;01 - 00;02;35;07
Gray Cooper
Like I said, Minnesota is freezing. The lab is freezing and the people inside the lab are frozen, too. Anita, Dr. Yin's assistant, a short young woman, is emotionless as she leads me to a glass door. I wonder if Anita herself is I. I'm tempted to ask her if she adheres to the three laws of robotics. But bite my tongue.
00;02;35;23 - 00;02;57;10
Gray Cooper
She has me sit alone at a gray Formica desk while she stands guard by the door. The walls gray, nothing but projected copy devices. So I stare at the tiny scratches on the desk looking for patterns. I expected a government robot lab to be pristine like I've seen in the cinema. But alas, it's kind of shabby.
00;03;02;15 - 00;03;22;14
Gray Cooper
Finally, an odd man in a white lab coat enters the room. He's bald with jam jar glasses, further accentuating the bizarre look in his eyes. He faces away from me, and I ask him to tell me what he knows about the data leak. This will not end well for the program, he says more to himself than to me.
00;03;22;25 - 00;03;45;19
Gray Cooper
I agree, but I want to know exactly what he knows. He turns his attention to the wall and asks if he can tell me a joke. Okay then. The future. Past and present. Walk into a bar. It was tense. Good one, I tell him. And then I'm blasted by a laugh track.
00;03;49;16 - 00;03;57;10
Gray Cooper
I'm in disbelief as Baldy turns toward me, his mouth open, revealing that the laugh track is coming from him.
00;04;03;06 - 00;04;26;16
Gray Cooper
A tall man enters carrying a bag and introduces himself as Dr. Yin. I see you've met Ted, he says, nodding to the short man in the lab coat who waves at me. Wow. Ted looks so human yet so strange. The uncanny valley. Now it all makes sense. Even still, it's hard for me to shake the queasy feeling that Ted gives me.
00;04;26;27 - 00;04;48;20
Gray Cooper
But I can't seem to look away. Dr. Yin proceeds to tell me that there is no way anyone in his lab would leak their research. It's all highly classified, and the hand-picked team is very small. There is no comms access to the outside. Everyone must leave all equipment in the lab. I remember the intensity of security upon my arrival.
00;04;49;02 - 00;05;11;13
Gray Cooper
Ted interrupts to say that the program will not end well. This seems to upset Dr. Ian. He hands me a bag and explains that it contains a drive with the internal security footage for the last month. I'm told I'll need to view it here at the lab. It will take hours. I cannot be here that long without coffee or cinnamon candy.
00;05;11;21 - 00;05;35;07
Gray Cooper
I tell them I'll return in an hour. As I walk outside, my copy device buzzed in my pocket. There was a message on my phone from a number I didn't recognize. It's Joe, Nebraska's neighbor. Apparently, Joe gave her my number in case of emergency. She said she wasn't sure it was an emergency, but that Joe's mail had piled up about two weeks worth.
00;05;36;09 - 00;05;55;22
Gray Cooper
She remembered him leaving with a suitcase, saying he was going to visit his brother, Dolan. I never knew Joe had a brother. The neighbor wanted to know if she should get Joe's mail. I tell her that would be great. He probably forgot to put a hold on it. I haven't seen Joe in person in a whole month. Haven't talked to him in a couple of weeks.
00;05;56;05 - 00;06;21;23
Gray Cooper
I suspected something was going on with him. I didn't realize he had family to attend to. I'm relieved and worried at the same time. We never talked about the business card. I found the one that keeps me up at night. The message that could mean Zeke is back. It's impossible. Of course. Zeke is gone. But it's not beyond me that this world can sometimes reverse the impossible.
00;06;22;16 - 00;06;43;25
Gray Cooper
I arrived back at the lab, fully caffeinated, with a pocket full of candy. They weren't going to let me bring it in, but I made it clear that if they wanted my help, my sugar habit must be obliged. They had to take it to the general in charge. Who could see that I would not budge. Once they got me set up in a room, I started poring through hours of lab footage.
00;06;44;06 - 00;06;50;13
Gray Cooper
It's blindingly boring. No one said being a detective would be glamorous.
00;06;54;24 - 00;07;17;15
Gray Cooper
4 hours later, I find something suspicious and show it to Anita and Dr. Yin. A person from the cleaning staff sits at the desk, lounging while talking to Ted. I can see why this place lacks shine in Polish, Dr. Yin tells me. It's Alex. He's been here for years. Came over from the Roswell lab. I tell him it's not the lounging that suspicious.
00;07;17;26 - 00;07;38;04
Gray Cooper
It's that Ted hands a paper to Alex, and Alex puts it into his pocket and exits through a door on the right side of the frame. Anita says, I told you so, too, Dr. Yin, and leaves the room. Dr. Yin apologizes and says that Anita has been under pressure and seems to begrudge the friendship between Ted and Alex.
00;07;38;16 - 00;08;02;00
Gray Cooper
I didn't know that I could have friendship, but there it is. I ask Dr. Yin what room the door leads to. It goes to the supply storage, he tells me. Then I ask for Alex's address and known contacts. They tell me I won't need them.
00;08;04;00 - 00;08;23;13
Gray Cooper
They found him dusting screens on the basement level. But for now, he joins me in the footage room. Alex K.P. sits in front of me with a look of deep contentedness that you just don't see in people under 65 these days. I ask him if he knows about the data leak. He says no. So I shift the discussion to his thoughts of Ted.
00;08;23;22 - 00;08;43;00
Gray Cooper
Alex said Ted can tell the future and that Ted told him his life would be full of fortune for the rest of his time on earth. I ask him if the on earth stipulation gave him any pause. He said No. Where else would I be? I think about all I've seen during these past few years. So many places, Alex.
00;08;43;18 - 00;09;07;11
Gray Cooper
So many. But, he continues. Alex said what Ted told him has given him a lot of peace and he doesn't worry about anything anymore. I asked him why he believes Ted. And he told me because Anita wrote his code. And she's the smartest person he's ever met. Anita? I thought Dr. Yin designed Ted. According to Alex. Anita told him.
00;09;07;12 - 00;09;32;18
Gray Cooper
Dr. Yin only runs the project. He's the senior scientist and gets all the credit. But the real big brain here is Anita. The insidious patriarchy still rears its ugly head. Science might be advancing at a rapid pace, but human behavior still struggles to keep up. I ask him if Ted ever gave him anything. He says no. So I show him the video.
00;09;33;07 - 00;10;08;29
Gray Cooper
Oh, that. Yes, that. He fished the paper out of his jacket and handed it to me. It's another joke. What is the opposite of I? Real stupid. Funny. Alex laughed. I leave him to his devices and go back to the lab to question Anita. The only one in the lab is Ted. I sit at a table and say a reluctant hello.
00;10;09;12 - 00;10;33;21
Gray Cooper
Ted returns with an enthusiastic hello Gray Cooper, private government detective who likes candy tainted with red dye number 40. I admit it. I feel seen. I tell Ted that I'm there to speak with Anita. He knows that already. And I suppose that I just can't help myself. Because, truly, what would you do alone in a room with a robot who can tell the future?
00;10;34;03 - 00;11;00;02
Gray Cooper
So I ask Ted, how am I going to die? Ted turns slowly away from the wall and tells me Dr. Yin made sure he only makes ethical predictions and never responds to emotional human questions. Are any human questions without emotion? I ask if you can tell me anything about my future, like he told Alex. Ted said he never told Alex his future.
00;11;00;05 - 00;11;08;16
Gray Cooper
He merely read him the fortune from a Chinese cookie. Alex ate for lunch and then he opened his mouth again.
00;11;11;13 - 00;11;24;23
Gray Cooper
I wasn't amused and hoped he'd tell me something. The last thing he said before Anita swept into the room was Greg Cooper is not lost. Good to know.
00;11;29;13 - 00;11;53;15
Gray Cooper
Anita picked at her fingernails when I asked her about the leak. She said it didn't really matter to her either way because this was groundbreaking research. I asked, wasn't she upset that another government or enterprise could steal their work and create their own Ted? She was apathetic and tired. I told her that if she cooperated, then we could make her a deal, that I could see how much she cared.
00;11;54;04 - 00;12;19;22
Gray Cooper
That did it. I don't know if it was my sincerity or stating the obvious, but after a deep breath in, everything came out. Words, tears, anger, laughter. It didn't take long for her to admit she'd leaked the research to sabotage the TED project. She'd rather it be out in the open than allow Dr. Yin to take credit for her work.
00;12;20;02 - 00;12;45;19
Gray Cooper
Technically, Dr. Yin did nothing wrong. It was his project, and the government owned every bit of research developed in the lab. But Anita wanted her legacy to be Ted and not the assistant to the person who developed Ted. After the confession, the Royal Guard unceremoniously escorted me out of the lab. No, thank you. No. Pat on the back.
00;12;45;26 - 00;13;09;21
Gray Cooper
They even kept my bobby pin. This case left me feeling used up. My connect in D.C. told me the program was disbanded and that Ted was decommissioned. I highly doubt the government would give up that kind of power if it were true. Dr. Yin went on to work in the private sector, making millions of dollars, managing developers. Anita was taken into military custody.
00;13;09;25 - 00;13;44;25
Gray Cooper
But my guess is her contract to work with them won over any criminal charges. I have a feeling I haven't seen the last of her work. Alex KP left government facilities work and took up a career in standup comedy. He's known for a prolific amount of material about robots and time travel. The age of artificial intelligence continues to be a modern, ethical dilemma.
00;13;45;03 - 00;14;11;15
Gray Cooper
They were built to help us, and hopefully they will continue to do just that. If A.I. is truly sentient, then it seems only right to let them be free. So far, robots reap the most havoc in our relationship to them and to each other. They've never intentionally harmed humans, to my knowledge. Maybe we fear the death and destruction I could cause because we made them in our own image.
00;14;12;19 - 00;14;55;19
Gray Cooper
If one day they do indeed cause the collapse of humanity, then perhaps the joke is on us. Stop! This has been an episode of the Strange Chronicles of Fiction podcast. You can follow us on Instagram at the Strange Chronicles podcast or email us at info at the Strange Chronicles dot com. This has been a kings of content production.
00;14;56;20 - 00;15;07;20
Gray Cooper
Thank you for listening and.