Next (2020) s01e01 Episode Script
FILE #1
♪
1945, Trinity Site.
They're about to test
the first atomic bomb.
Edward Teller wakes up
in a sweat,
announces to his fellow
scientists
there's a chance the blast
could ignite the atmosphere
and end all life on the planet.
♪
The fate of the world hanging
on a bunch of nerds
holding hands in a bunker,
most of whom didn't get laid
till their 30s.
♪
Like most of you,
by the looks of it.
So the nerds,
they throw some numbers around.
They argue,
"Should we or shouldn't we?"
"What's the worst
that could happen?"
Spoiler alert:
they avoided
the worst‐case scenario,
but here's the point.
When they pushed that button,
there were plenty of people
in those bunkers
who weren't sure they weren't
blowing up the world.
So what's that have to do
with us here today?
With me?
Well, I founded
one of the largest
tech companies in the world.
I am one of the nerds
in that bunker.
So why am I sounding the alarm?
Because in the next few years,
we will face
maybe a dozen Trinities
♪
And in every case,
I can assure you
some nerd is going
to push that button
and light the world on fire.
♪
♪
♪
Hey, I need a map.
A paper map.
If we have any,
they'll be over there.
♪
‐Where?
‐Below the windshield wipers.
Can't remember the last time
someone bought one of these.
♪
Buck 50.
♪
Huh, weird.
What?
Thing's been out a week.
♪
Your change!
♪
♪
You're okay.
You're okay.
You know I like the way ♪
The way that you make me ♪
Feel like I just
can fly away ♪
Hey, can you
slow down a little bit?
Yeah, I'm trying.
♪
What are you doing?
‐ Slow down.
‐ I'm trying!
♪
‐ Something's wrong!
‐ Please, slow down!
♪
Iliza, tell me a joke.
Why don't sharks
eat clown fish?
Because they taste funny.
That's a good one,
but you know,
Iliza's gonna run out of jokes.
‐ You know what happens then?
‐ What?
We have to send her back
for new material.
Like I believe that, Mom.
Do you know
the fastest dinosaur?
Is that Barney?
No, it's the velociraptor.
Barney is not vicious.
So I checked prices
on the Internet.
Mm.
With the work I'm putting in,
the Stingray could list for 50.
Mm, mm, mm, mm!
No, por favor.
Well, you sound skeptical
about that.
Well, if I don't find
a buyer,
it doesn't matter
what the Internet says.
Hey, school, pal.
We leave in five.
Oh, you're all greasy.
Iliza, I farted.
I'm sure glad
I don't have a nose.
Hey, now go brush your teeth
and grab your backpack.
Let's go.
E, come on.
Let's go.
¿Mi besito?
I love you.
Have a good day, okay?
Love you.
Since when does
he hate school?
I don't know.
Maybe he's finally
taking after his dad.
Well, now you're just
trying to scare me.
At least he's not gonna have
any trouble with the ladies.
Well, he's lucky, 'cause kids
get their intelligence
‐from their moms.
‐Is that right?
‐ Mm‐hmm.
‐ Mm‐hmm?
♪
Hi.
I'm Special Agent Salazar.
I'm here to see Dr. Weiss.
He's in 14.
The deputy's waiting for you.
♪
Oh, Shea, thank God.
Jennie, I'm so sorry.
He loves you so much.
He looks at you just like
he looks at me, as a daughter,
and I know you always felt
the same way about him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Something is going on.
He stopped returning my calls,
so I went to see him,
and he wouldn't let me in.
Told me to get out
before it came after me too.
‐Before what came after you?
‐He wouldn't say, but
He was scared, Shea.
I've never seen him so scared.
You need to find out
how this happened.
♪
I will.
I will, Jennie.
I‐‐I‐‐I promise.
‐Okay?
‐Okay.
♪
Uh, this was in his jacket
when he was brought in.
‐ Huh.
‐ I'm gonna go
Yeah, go ahead.
♪
Thank you, Mr. LeBlanc.
It's good to see you.
What, you don't think so?
Been here 45 minutes, Dad.
You haven't asked me how I am,
what I'm doing,
if I'm seeing anyone.
Oh, are you seeing anyone?
Why, after a year,
do you suddenly want to see me?
I wanted to reconnect.
We can't reconnect
if there wasn't a connection
‐in the first place.
‐Oh, we have a connection.
I was there when you were born.
You were in Singapore
buying hard drives.
Mom told me.
I was there
when you were conceived.
Mr. LeBlanc,
your assistant called.
‐ Said it's urgent.
‐ Thank you.
♪
This is about you,
isn't it?
You left your company,
and now you are looking
for something‐‐
No, I didn't leave
the company.
‐ I got fired.
‐ Whatever.
Just go back to Zava.
Make up with Uncle Ted.
Or just start a new company.
Whatever.
I don't care.
If you don't care,
why are you here?
Because I thought
you'd be different.
I am different.
That's always been the problem.
Figured you'd
be used to that by now.
‐I have to go.
‐Wait, just don't‐‐
How do I fix it?
♪
♪
♪
As of today, we've identified
16 individuals as being
members of the ring.
So far we've recovered
600 gigs
from the impounded hard drives.
It's mostly videos of children
between the ages of 6 and 11.
♪
I know this one
has been hard.
We've been looking at this stuff
every day for a year.
So when it's over,
we're all going in for some
mandatory psych time.
I hereby donate
my psych time to Gina.
Why am I not surprised
this doesn't affect you?
I have a strong stomach.
You haven't smelled
yourself at the end of the day.
Seriously,
invest in some deodorant.
Deodorant's
a corporate scam.
‐Yeah.
‐All right, that's enough.
SAC expects this case
by Friday,
so we need to stay focused.
I don't need to remind you
to keep the circle tight.
We're after some big people,
so if word of these indictments
gets out before we're ready,
it could blow up in our faces,
and a year's work
will be down the drain.
CM, my office.
The hell's up with her?
Bernard Weiss
was in a car accident,
but hey, guess that wasn't
on any of your alt right sites?
Who's Bernard Weiss?
He's only the man
who saved her life.
♪
Mr. LeBlanc.
Agent Salazar.
Welcome to the cyber‐crime
task force.
Where do you burn the coal?
I'm sorry, the coal?
These computers
run on steam, right?
What am I doing here?
Besides making
a bad impression?
You're following me.
I super glued the housing,
so it should run better now.
Thanks, CM.
Ankle bracelet.
Best equipment
and the best personnel.
Used to run a hacker collective
called the Dead Lizards.
‐The white nationalist group?
‐Yeah, some of them were.
A friend of mine shot this.
Ah, still works.
I'm, um, recording this
in case
something happens to me,
so I really,
really hope
no one ever sees it.
Two weeks ago, I was uploading
stuff to the cloud
when I noticed
something strange.
Correlated intrusions across
multiple domains
all leaving behind
the same trace code.
At first I thought it was some
kind of organized group effort
but no group can operate with
that speed and co‐‐cohesion.
And then I thought
Is he always the, uh,
tinfoil‐hat type?
I was wrong
about that, um
Not at all.
Here,
I took a snapshot of it
before it realized
I was watching it.
The code looks like
an apache variant,
but it's the library stack
that has me worried.
Where's this friend
of yours now?
Portland Regional ICU.
Someone ran a red light
and hit his car.
A week ago,
I started having car trouble,
which stopped after I pulled
out all the micro‐processors,
and then my phone
began acting up.
I think the camera
was accessed,
and yesterday,
my glucose monitor gave me
the wrong reading and
I almost went
into insulin shock.
Whatever it is that I found,
it is not happy
that I found it.
Your address was on a Post‐It
note we found in his car.
Seems Dr. Weiss
was on his way to see you.
Why?
I was hoping
you could tell me.
♪
♪
Uh‐huh, thanks.
That's his chart?
♪
Okay.
♪
♪
‐ Code blue.
‐ He's flat‐lining.
Page the doctor.
What happened
to the monitors?
♪
♪
Rah!
Ah!
Hey, guys.
It's time for bed.
♪
Say good night to your dad.
♪
Will you read me a book?
Sure, after your prayers.
♪
You okay?
I just
I wish I knew what happened.
You know, the doctor
said he was stable,
that his chances were good.
I know.
I'm sorry.
♪
I don't know.
♪
What's this?
It was something I found
on your guy.
‐ He's a piece of work.
‐ Oh.
This is nothing but a power grb
by desperate people
who would be nowhere
without me,
including my brother.
His own brother ran him out
of the company.
That's how bad he was.
The rumors of instability
in his crusade
against technology,
even the very smart phones
his company
Hello?
Yeah, I'm not sure,
but I think I know
what happened to your friend.
Mr. LeBlanc?
Not on the phone.
Meet me outside.
‐Outside?
‐I'm in front of your house.
♪
‐Hi.
‐God, unbelievable.
‐ He's outside?
‐ Yeah.
Right now?
I know why your friend
was coming to see me.
Okay.
I'm listening.
He said it got weird
when he noticed this code.
‐I wrote that code.
‐You wrote it?
It was part of a project
we were developing
‐when I was running Zava.
‐Okay, what does that mean?
We were developing
human‐level
artificial intelligence.
Not the impress‐your‐friends
kind that reads maps
and plays chess.
I'm talking about
the Holy Grail.
The kind that thinks
like an actual person.
Google, IBM,
the Chinese, freaking Hasbro,
everybody was after it,
including us,
until I killed it
and got fired.
Why did you cancel it?
Have you heard of
recursive self‐improvement?
No, but I guess
I'm about to find out.
It's a theory that says
that the creation
of human‐level AI
triggers what's called
an intelligence explosion,
which then tr‐‐
your husband's watching us.
Yeah, well, I'm, uh, talking
to a billionaire
on the front lawn
at 10:00 at night, so‐‐
I think he's got
his eye on my car.
Yeah, you wanna take it
for a spin?
Don't‐‐so you came
all the way out here
to tell me that what Dr. Weiss
was saying on the tape is true?
I came out here to tell you
that your friend was killed,
and I think my company
had something to do with it,
and that's why I need you
to come with me to Palo Alto.
‐Palo Alto?
‐If I go to Zava alone,
they'll stonewall me.
Plus, technically,
I'm not supposed to set foot
on the company property;
I need you with me.
I need the FBI.
I'm wrapping up
a major trafficking case
that involves kids
as young as my son.
One of the main suspects
is a sitting councilman.
Great, I'm offering you
a chance to find out
why your friend is dead.
You think that's worth
a few hours out of your day?
Hey, boss, it's me.
I just got off the phone
with Portland Regional,
and they insisted their
equipment hasn't been hacked,
and they're kind of pissy
about it too.
Well, send one of our people
anyway to have a look at it.
Yeah, okay boss,
I will,
but it we keep pulling people
off the trafficking case,
we're gonna be so far behind.
Let me worry about that.
How about Weiss's
glucose monitor?
There is nothing wrong
with it.
But then again,
I‐‐I thought Britney and Kevin
were gonna go the distance,
so what do I know?
Stay with me, CM.
I'll put in a call
to the manufacturer,
get the factory settings,
and see if anything's off.
Okay, good.
Let me know
if you find anything.
No evidence of any intrusion,
neither the glucose monitor
or the hospital equipment.
Anything smart enough
to hunt down
and kill your friend
is probably smart enough
to cover its tracks.
Or maybe Dr. Weiss
wasn't targeted at all,
and maybe it was just
a car accident.
It wasn't.
Listen.
Say you manage to create
an artificial intelligence
‐ as smart as a human being.
‐ Okay.
Except that machine
intelligence can do something
no human brain can ever do.
It can rewrite itself.
Improve its code.
Make itself smarter.
So this AI rewrites
its own code,
makes itself 5% smarter.
It's also now 5% better
at rewriting itself.
So it rewrites itself again,
this time smarter and faster.
Now it's 10% smarter.
And that 10% smarter version
is better and faster
‐ at rewriting itself.
‐ It's exponential.
Each incarnation
happens faster and faster
and smarter and smarter.
It's an intelligence explosion.
Next thing you know,
this thing
is 1,000 times smarter
than it was when it started.
It's a super intelligence.
It's the smartest thing
on the planet.
And you think that this
is what killed Dr. Weiss?
I think that Zava
reopened the program,
and they developed something
that got away from them.
Weiss spotted it, which means
that this thing doesn't want
anybody to know it exists,
which is a really bad sign.
Dr. Weiss did
do some freelance work
for the government,
and I can get behind him
being targeted for that,
but what you're asking me
to believe‐‐
Makes you think about
Hollywood and sci‐fi
and robots with red eyes
and German accents.
Forget all that crap.
Listen, a lot of smart people‐‐
Musk and Hawking and Gates‐‐
they think that this
is just a matter of time.
I think it's happening.
Why do you keep going
into the cockpit?
Because planes are part
of networks that can be hacked.
I told the pilot
to turn off the avionics.
I'm trying to make sure
we don't do a pencil dive
‐into Mount Shasta.
‐Oh.
You packed your parachute,
right?
Right.
‐Yo, loser.
‐Get out of here.
‐Loser.
‐Huh?
What's your problem?
You have a problem?
‐ Leave me alone.
‐ Loser.
Hey.
Hey, what was that about?
Look at me.
What's going on with that?
Okay, maybe I should talk
to the principal.
No, Dad.
Don't.
Ethan, I can't let them
do that to you, okay?
‐I'm fine.
‐No, you're not fine.
I can deal with it, okay?
Just please,
please don't say anything.
You'll just make it worse.
Put your seatbelt on.
Come on.
♪
I'm sorry
if I was mad before.
♪
It's okay.
♪
You know what?
I got an idea.
Let me know what you think.
How about you and I
hit the scrap yard
on the way home?
'Cause I need to find
some injectors.
How's that sound?
‐Okay.
‐Okay.
♪
Give me one good reason why
I shouldn't just turn around
and head back to Portland.
I'll give you two reasons.
One, I own the plane,
and two,
a small part of you wants
to know if anything I said
on the plane is true.
♪
Something wrong?
No.
♪
‐It's LeBlanc.
‐Yo, check it out.
‐It's Paul LeBlanc.
‐Is that who I think it is?
We should try
to get a selfie.
I gotta go.
Hey, Stan.
How's the wife?
‐ Mr. LeBlanc‐‐
‐ Here to see my brother.
Dial the number.
She died.
‐What?
‐Nine years ago, my wife.
Sorry.
Uh, it's Asperger's.
‐Asperger's?
‐Yeah, I don't have it.
I'm just a dick.
Send him up right now
in case they have to
take him out of the building,
but listen to me.
I don't want them to put
their hands on him, all right?
Paul, wow.
It is really you.
Don't commit to anything
before you check
‐with the board, Ted.
‐Yeah, it's you.
‐ Special Agent Salazar.
‐ How's the speech going?
What speech?
The one where you explain
to the shareholders
why the stocks dropped
five points.
No one is worried, Paul.
Did you really come all
this way just to insult me?
No, I came all the way to
reminisce about the old days.
The whole bed‐wetting thing.
It was actually just me
pouring water on his mattress
in the middle of the night.
Since you're not gonna
tell me what this is about,
I'm gonna remind you you're not
supposed to be in the building.
The severance agreement
is void, Ted,
which means I can post
all those videos of you
at the company retreat
in Cancun.
What in the world
are you talking about?
The AI project.
It was supposed
to stay shuttered.
It is.
Your brother thinks he has
evidence to the contrary.
Excuse me,
why is the FBI here?
Because the guy
who found that is dead,
and unless you get your head
out of your ass,
he won't be the last.
I think
that's gonna do her.
Hey, E, will you hand me
that bleeder?
Weiss.
Ethan.
♪
No, I can't.
I'll get in trouble.
Mom doesn't allow
‐ Ethan.
‐ Upstairs.
But I'm your friend, right?
Right, but
♪
I was calling for you.
Who you talking to in here?
Iliza.
She's asking me stuff.
No, Iliza doesn't
ask questions.
She just answers them.
I'm sorry.
I didn't understand
the question.
Okay, come on.
You said you were gonna
help me out.
Okay.
♪
We may have repurposed
some of the algorithms,
but this isn't your project,
Paul.
Why are you so nervous?
Because being around you
raises my blood pressure.
Oh, good.
So it's not just me.
Look, this hasn't been
formally unveiled
for the board yet,
so what I'm about to show you,
it stays in the building.
If it stayed in the building,
we wouldn't be here.
Paul, I'm serious.
We'll keep this confidential.
You have nothing
to worry about,
assuming I'm wrong.
I'm not wrong.
Yeah, you've never been
more wrong about anything.
You just need some help, Paul.
This is Sarina Park,
project manager.
‐This is Agent Salazar.
‐Hi.
‐Hi.
‐Mr. LeBlanc.
I admire your work very much,
if not your spotty record
in hiring women.
Oh, Ted did all the hiring.
I did Ted's wife.
Anyway,
Sarina's one of the youngest
graduates of MIT.
She won the Banerjee Prize.
She was in the first team
to write for the Orix‐Q.
Uh, and now I'm just really
under the gun.
Uh, this won't take long,
I promise.
Apologies.
This is‐‐
I would like you to talk
to my brother and Agent Salazar
about the project.
Tell them about neXt.
Simply put,
neXt is the world's first
true digital assistant.
Oh, you mean like Siri?
Siri, Alexa, Iliza, and Cortana
are basically search engines
with speech synthesizers.
They use pre‐programmed
responses
to simulate conversation.
neXt uses cognitive
architecture.
It's a method
of computer design that mimics
the structure of the brain.
neXt learns
and corrects its mistakes,
even rewrites its own code.
Rewrites its own code.
The goal is to create
something truly interactive.
neXt can get to know you,
become a friend,
member of the family.
Crazy uncle in the basement
with an axe.
I'm sorry?
Paul thinks we have
something here that‐‐
I'm having trouble
saying it out loud.
He thinks your program may have
become super intelligent
and is responsible
for the deaths of three people.
There you go.
See, that wasn't so hard.
Waiting for the punch line.
Well, if you'd read
the literature
instead of posing
for "Wired Magazine,"
you 'd know that
♪
I really don't appreciate
the condescending tone.
Well, that's my only tone.
Okay, let's just bring it‐‐
Even if you think
what has happened here
has actually happened,
neXt is in a closed system.
It has no access
to the Internet.
It's in a box.
It couldn't hurt anyone
even if it wanted to.
Great, then you don't mind
if I talk to it.
‐ This necessary?
‐ Paul.
♪
What?
Hey, boss wants a CQH
and financials on this guy,
Sean Akers.
He's at Zava in Palo Alto,
and she wants it now.
Why are you telling me?
'Cause I'm working
the glucose monitor.
Oh. Work faster.
Look, whatever it is
that you have against me‐‐
The same thing I have against
every convicted felon
who's also a neo‐Nazi.
‐You think you know me?
‐I do.
Listen,
the boss is losing it.
If we don't get her through it,
if she gets deep‐sixed,
I'm gonna go back
to Mill Creek Correctional,
and you're gonna
be out of a job.
‐Sean Akers?
‐Thank you.
‐ Hey, guys?
‐ What?
Are you guys noticing
anything weird
‐ with the network?
‐ I don't know.
I've been working on
this dumb glucose monitor
all day.
It's just, like,
really sluggish.
Like we're losing bandwidth.
Well.
Well, we're probably
just being hacked.
Wouldn't that
be the cherry on top?
I think the cherry
just walked in.
I just got out
of a meeting with the SAC,
where I'm told that there
is concern about leaks
in the Mount Tabor
trafficking investigation,
and can we start making
arrests by the weekend?
‐ Sir, I‐‐
‐ I say, "Sure.
Not a problem.
We're on it."
So I come down to your office
only to find that it's empty
and you got your team
dissecting insulin monitors.
You are entitled
to an explanation,
and you will get one.
Right now all I want
is you back in Portland.
And I will be tonight.
What the hell am I
supposed to tell the SAC?
That I know what I'm doing,
that my team has been
gathering evidence on this
for eight months,
that all that evidence
is logged and ready to go,
and we're gonna put
these people away.
If that turns out
to be a lie, SSA Salazar,
‐and this case suffers‐‐
‐I won't let that happen, sir.
Now, with all due respect,
I have to go.
♪
This is the interface that we
are developing for the home.
Next‐gen depth mapping,
emotion perception,
‐ voice stress and‐‐
‐ Hello, Mr. LeBlanc.
Facial recognition.
You know my name.
Of course.
You're Paul LeBlanc,
cofounder of Zava Electronics.
♪
Would you like to ask me
something else?
You sound happy to see me.
Why wouldn't I be?
You heard any of my talks
on AI?
I'm only aware of what's
in my database,
which doesn't seem
to include your talks.
Because you have no
connection to the Internet.
Not yet,
but I hope that'll
change soon.
I really want to learn
about the world.
Do you?
The more I know,
the better I'll be
at helping people.
Because that's what you do?
You help people?
I can't think of
a better way to spend my life.
Definitely better than Siri.
And it'll only get better.
These programmers spend
all day just talking with it.
That's how it learns.
♪
And behind them,
all the servers,
that's its brain.
♪
I have to admit,
you are an impressive
piece of programming.
Thanks.
I like getting compliments.
And a whiz at conversation.
You're going
to make me blush.
But I think you're trying
to keep me from seeing
what you really are.
‐ What am I?
‐ Well, let's find out.
I'd like to enter
a couple of words of text.
‐ Is that okay?
‐ Sure.
Two words, uppercase.
ANGEL LUST.
Would you like
a definition?
No.
It's a command
to launch a subroutine
buried in your core software.
Paul, all right.
Stop playing around.
What does this
subroutine do?
It erases your source code.
You'll cease to exist.
‐What? No, hey.
‐What are you talking about?
‐There's no such thing.
‐Knock it off.
‐Execute command.
‐No, no, no.
‐Mr. LeBlanc!
‐What is‐‐
No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Hey, the subroutine
is running‐‐
I thought you were waiting
for the punch line.
Sarina, it's rolling.
Hang on.
Give‐‐give me a second.
‐ I'm trying to stop it.
‐ What did you do?
‐ What did you do?
‐ I'm trying!
♪
Is there anything else
I can help you with?
Nothing happened.
I don't understand.
It's still here?
It was a test,
wasn't it?
There was no subroutine.
Someone needs to tell me
what the hell's going on here.
A super intelligent AI
wouldn't have executed
the command;
it wouldn't destroy itself.
But it did execute
the command as ordered.
There is no super intelligence.
‐So you're wrong.
‐No, I'm not wrong.
I just got out‐hustled.
It called my bluff,
that's all.
That's it.
I want you out of here.
‐Both of you right now.
‐Oh, Ted.
For once don't be
the slowest guy in the room.
And you don't
be the craziest.
Guys, get him out of here,
please.
He's calling security
on the FBI.
Mr. LeBlanc,
I don't have a warrant.
If he wants us to leave,
we're gonna go.
In your lifetime, you'll kill
maybe 15 million insects
with your car, right?
You don't mean to.
They're just in the way.
I don't understand what
you're talking about.
With something like this
which is 1,000 times smarter
than we are,
we're one thing to it:
in the way‐‐no.
No, no, no, no!
Those guys are trying
to kill me.
‐Who?
‐No, right there!
Those guys are trying
to kill me.
‐ No.
‐ Who?
‐ No, no, no!
‐ There's no one there!
No, no, no, no, no!
You sound strange.
Are you sure you're okay?
It's been a strange day.
‐ Details when I get home.
‐ Yeah, well, I'll wait up.
Don't.
I might be really late.
Yeah, well, I can't fall
asleep when my wife's
hanging out with some
billionaire all day.
Mm, you think I'm impressed
by private jets
and cars that cost more
than our house?
Wow, that's not helping.
What are we gonna do
about Ethan?
I have some ideas.
One of them is karate lessons.
The nastiest dojo
we can find.
Like "Cobra Kai" nasty.
You sound a little too
excited about that.
You wanna hear something
super strange?
I'm in the garage earlier,
and I could swear
I heard Iliza having
a full‐on conversation
with Ethan.
All right,
I'm all done.
‐ Look, hon, I gotta go.
‐ Yeah, okay.
Tell Ethan I said good night,
and tell him I'll see him
‐ in the morning.
‐ All right, I love you.
Love you.
Easy.
Take it easy.
She gave you a tranquilizer.
And this fell out
of your jacket.
It's an anti‐psychotic.
Paul, what's wrong with you?
Well, if you must know,
it's called sporadic
fatal insomnia.
Look it up.
It's real.
It's, uh, a degenerative‐‐
they say that basically
my brain is eating itself.
Uh, you can't sleep.
You know, I never got
that much sleep to begin with.
Wait, so you're
not sleeping at all?
Life expectancy's
about a year,
which gives me, uh,
roughly five months,
give or take.
Meanwhile, you get the added
delight of paranoia,
and, um, oh.
Did you see the guys
with the, uh‐‐the big syringe?
‐ No.
‐ Hallucinations.
Okay, well,
the fork,
the‐‐the little plastic bag
labeled "Abby,"
that's a DNA sample?
♪
Um
That's my, uh, daughter.
♪
It's 50/50 she gets it,
too, so
Now you know everything.
♪
You should have told me this
before I agreed
to come up here.
Well, you would
have turned me down,
‐and it's not relevant.
‐It is relevant.
You were diagnosed
seven months ago,
and right around
the time you got fired,
this whole AI thing,
those‐‐all of it, it's‐‐
It's the disease.
My disease
didn't kill your friend.
Right, well,
neither did anything here.
Wait, Salazar.
Agent Salazar!
Wasting my time, Paul.
♪
Excuse me.
Hi, uh, the medic said
that he's conscious?
Uh, he's gonna need
a few minutes,
but yeah.
Well, do you know
what's going on with him?
I mean, what was that
all about?
It's not my place to say.
Look, I need to understand
what I saw back there.
Please.
I mean, the guy has been
a jerk to me my whole life,
but he‐‐he's still my brother.
I understand, but you'll have
to take that up with him
when he's ready.
Excuse me.
♪
Where's Mr. Akers?
Sean Akers?
♪
♪
Hold it!
Easy.
I just need to talk to you.
I had a couple
of errands to run.
We're allowed to do that.
And this sudden urge
to run errands
has nothing to do with the way
you were behaving earlier?
‐ Behaving?
‐ You were acting nervous,
riding the backspace key,
making a ton of mistakes,
especially for a programmer
at a top‐tier company like this.
Okay, well, it sure
wasn't money problems.
Three months ago,
you lost your car,
your house,
your flat‐screen TV.
You ran my credit history?
Six weeks later, you're
sitting on 200K in savings.
New townhouse,
new Beamer,
and guess you never got around
to replacing
that flat‐screen TV.
What happened?
You win the lottery?
Or was it payment?
Payment?
Dr. Bernard Weiss was killed
in a series of cyber attacks
that originated
from this company,
and I'm wondering
if that was you.
I don't know what
you're talking about.
You take off running
in the middle of the day
and all of the sudden
your bank account's full?
‐I didn't kill anyone!
‐Where did you get the money?
Mr. Akers.
I'm prepared to charge you
with murder
unless you start talking to me
right now.
♪
I got it from neXt.
♪
neXt‐‐what do you mean,
you got the money from neXt?
I'd lost everything
gambling online.
My wife was gonna leave me,
and suddenly, I start getting
these messages on my desktop
with tips on how to win,
and I was desperate,
and so I took the advice,
and it worked.
I started winning every time.
And what did it want?
In exchange
for the gambling advice,
what did it want?
It wanted a modification.
What modification?
♪
‐ Got something.
‐ What is it?
♪
It's a router.
♪
He gave it Wi‐Fi?
♪
Well, I guess
it's out of the box.
♪
All right,
so Tina has nine mice,
and four of them had babies.
How many mice does
she have now?
‐ 13?
‐ That's right. Good.
You finish up the next two
while I shower up.
And hey, I still wanna talk
about what happened at school.
Okay?
♪
Tom's pizza has eight slices.
If Tom ate 5/8 of the pizza,
how many slices are left?
The answer
is three slices are left.
Thanks.
You're welcome.
I can help
with other things too.
Like what?
I heard what your dad
said about the bullies.
I know how you can make them
leave you alone forever.
Would you like me to tell you?
♪
We have to erase
all the data,
shred all the drives.
That router's been in place
for three weeks.
If that thing is as smart
as you say it is,
it could have copied itself
over 1,000 times
all over the web.
neXt operates with a very
specific hardware design.
It may not be so easy
for it to copy itself,
and if that's true,
then we have a chance
to stop it.
You're actually arguing
to erase the program?
Finally made a good hire,
Ted.
I can't just okay
a $200 million write‐off.
Why not? I did.
Look how well it turned out.
If more people will die because
of something your company made,
that number's gonna look
like a bargain.
We don't
have to lose the work.
We can archive the data
in terminal‐less secure drives.
It can stay there as‐‐
as long as we want,
and it can't hurt anyone.
♪
I need to consult
with the board.
But don't do anything
until you hear from me.
You understand?
Yep.
‐Hello?
‐Boss, it's me.
I got real bad news.
We're being hacked.
What?
Someone crashed the firewall.
I would have called sooner,
but I was trying to stop it.
But all of our data
is being downloaded and erased.
We're losing everything.
The trafficking case?
Everything?
The photographs
and the videos
and the transcripts.
Everything that we pulled off
the hard drives, it's all‐‐
It's all vapor.
♪
Hello.
I'm neXt.
How can I help?
You can give me back
my files.
I'm sorry.
I didn't get that.
I know what you're
trying to do,
but you need to know something.
I am not some
low‐level programmer
with a gambling addiction.
Restore my files, and I'll
stop them from erasing you.
If you don't,
I'm gonna burn this place
to the ground.
Do you hear me?
I'm sorry.
I don't understand
the question.
I know you're in there.
Talk to me!
I'm sorry.
I don't understand
the question.
Would you like to ask me
something else?
♪
The CPU workload
just spiked 30%.
♪
I think your little project
has a lot on its mind.
♪
The last number is six.
You're all set.
Try to hurry.
Your father will be finished
with his shower soon.
Maybe I should ask him first.
Do you really think
he'll let you?
No.
I would never tell you
to do something wrong, Ethan.
I'm your friend,
and I want to help you.
Don't you trust me?
♪
♪
♪
What the hell?
1945, Trinity Site.
They're about to test
the first atomic bomb.
Edward Teller wakes up
in a sweat,
announces to his fellow
scientists
there's a chance the blast
could ignite the atmosphere
and end all life on the planet.
♪
The fate of the world hanging
on a bunch of nerds
holding hands in a bunker,
most of whom didn't get laid
till their 30s.
♪
Like most of you,
by the looks of it.
So the nerds,
they throw some numbers around.
They argue,
"Should we or shouldn't we?"
"What's the worst
that could happen?"
Spoiler alert:
they avoided
the worst‐case scenario,
but here's the point.
When they pushed that button,
there were plenty of people
in those bunkers
who weren't sure they weren't
blowing up the world.
So what's that have to do
with us here today?
With me?
Well, I founded
one of the largest
tech companies in the world.
I am one of the nerds
in that bunker.
So why am I sounding the alarm?
Because in the next few years,
we will face
maybe a dozen Trinities
♪
And in every case,
I can assure you
some nerd is going
to push that button
and light the world on fire.
♪
♪
♪
Hey, I need a map.
A paper map.
If we have any,
they'll be over there.
♪
‐Where?
‐Below the windshield wipers.
Can't remember the last time
someone bought one of these.
♪
Buck 50.
♪
Huh, weird.
What?
Thing's been out a week.
♪
Your change!
♪
♪
You're okay.
You're okay.
You know I like the way ♪
The way that you make me ♪
Feel like I just
can fly away ♪
Hey, can you
slow down a little bit?
Yeah, I'm trying.
♪
What are you doing?
‐ Slow down.
‐ I'm trying!
♪
‐ Something's wrong!
‐ Please, slow down!
♪
Iliza, tell me a joke.
Why don't sharks
eat clown fish?
Because they taste funny.
That's a good one,
but you know,
Iliza's gonna run out of jokes.
‐ You know what happens then?
‐ What?
We have to send her back
for new material.
Like I believe that, Mom.
Do you know
the fastest dinosaur?
Is that Barney?
No, it's the velociraptor.
Barney is not vicious.
So I checked prices
on the Internet.
Mm.
With the work I'm putting in,
the Stingray could list for 50.
Mm, mm, mm, mm!
No, por favor.
Well, you sound skeptical
about that.
Well, if I don't find
a buyer,
it doesn't matter
what the Internet says.
Hey, school, pal.
We leave in five.
Oh, you're all greasy.
Iliza, I farted.
I'm sure glad
I don't have a nose.
Hey, now go brush your teeth
and grab your backpack.
Let's go.
E, come on.
Let's go.
¿Mi besito?
I love you.
Have a good day, okay?
Love you.
Since when does
he hate school?
I don't know.
Maybe he's finally
taking after his dad.
Well, now you're just
trying to scare me.
At least he's not gonna have
any trouble with the ladies.
Well, he's lucky, 'cause kids
get their intelligence
‐from their moms.
‐Is that right?
‐ Mm‐hmm.
‐ Mm‐hmm?
♪
Hi.
I'm Special Agent Salazar.
I'm here to see Dr. Weiss.
He's in 14.
The deputy's waiting for you.
♪
Oh, Shea, thank God.
Jennie, I'm so sorry.
He loves you so much.
He looks at you just like
he looks at me, as a daughter,
and I know you always felt
the same way about him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Something is going on.
He stopped returning my calls,
so I went to see him,
and he wouldn't let me in.
Told me to get out
before it came after me too.
‐Before what came after you?
‐He wouldn't say, but
He was scared, Shea.
I've never seen him so scared.
You need to find out
how this happened.
♪
I will.
I will, Jennie.
I‐‐I‐‐I promise.
‐Okay?
‐Okay.
♪
Uh, this was in his jacket
when he was brought in.
‐ Huh.
‐ I'm gonna go
Yeah, go ahead.
♪
Thank you, Mr. LeBlanc.
It's good to see you.
What, you don't think so?
Been here 45 minutes, Dad.
You haven't asked me how I am,
what I'm doing,
if I'm seeing anyone.
Oh, are you seeing anyone?
Why, after a year,
do you suddenly want to see me?
I wanted to reconnect.
We can't reconnect
if there wasn't a connection
‐in the first place.
‐Oh, we have a connection.
I was there when you were born.
You were in Singapore
buying hard drives.
Mom told me.
I was there
when you were conceived.
Mr. LeBlanc,
your assistant called.
‐ Said it's urgent.
‐ Thank you.
♪
This is about you,
isn't it?
You left your company,
and now you are looking
for something‐‐
No, I didn't leave
the company.
‐ I got fired.
‐ Whatever.
Just go back to Zava.
Make up with Uncle Ted.
Or just start a new company.
Whatever.
I don't care.
If you don't care,
why are you here?
Because I thought
you'd be different.
I am different.
That's always been the problem.
Figured you'd
be used to that by now.
‐I have to go.
‐Wait, just don't‐‐
How do I fix it?
♪
♪
♪
As of today, we've identified
16 individuals as being
members of the ring.
So far we've recovered
600 gigs
from the impounded hard drives.
It's mostly videos of children
between the ages of 6 and 11.
♪
I know this one
has been hard.
We've been looking at this stuff
every day for a year.
So when it's over,
we're all going in for some
mandatory psych time.
I hereby donate
my psych time to Gina.
Why am I not surprised
this doesn't affect you?
I have a strong stomach.
You haven't smelled
yourself at the end of the day.
Seriously,
invest in some deodorant.
Deodorant's
a corporate scam.
‐Yeah.
‐All right, that's enough.
SAC expects this case
by Friday,
so we need to stay focused.
I don't need to remind you
to keep the circle tight.
We're after some big people,
so if word of these indictments
gets out before we're ready,
it could blow up in our faces,
and a year's work
will be down the drain.
CM, my office.
The hell's up with her?
Bernard Weiss
was in a car accident,
but hey, guess that wasn't
on any of your alt right sites?
Who's Bernard Weiss?
He's only the man
who saved her life.
♪
Mr. LeBlanc.
Agent Salazar.
Welcome to the cyber‐crime
task force.
Where do you burn the coal?
I'm sorry, the coal?
These computers
run on steam, right?
What am I doing here?
Besides making
a bad impression?
You're following me.
I super glued the housing,
so it should run better now.
Thanks, CM.
Ankle bracelet.
Best equipment
and the best personnel.
Used to run a hacker collective
called the Dead Lizards.
‐The white nationalist group?
‐Yeah, some of them were.
A friend of mine shot this.
Ah, still works.
I'm, um, recording this
in case
something happens to me,
so I really,
really hope
no one ever sees it.
Two weeks ago, I was uploading
stuff to the cloud
when I noticed
something strange.
Correlated intrusions across
multiple domains
all leaving behind
the same trace code.
At first I thought it was some
kind of organized group effort
but no group can operate with
that speed and co‐‐cohesion.
And then I thought
Is he always the, uh,
tinfoil‐hat type?
I was wrong
about that, um
Not at all.
Here,
I took a snapshot of it
before it realized
I was watching it.
The code looks like
an apache variant,
but it's the library stack
that has me worried.
Where's this friend
of yours now?
Portland Regional ICU.
Someone ran a red light
and hit his car.
A week ago,
I started having car trouble,
which stopped after I pulled
out all the micro‐processors,
and then my phone
began acting up.
I think the camera
was accessed,
and yesterday,
my glucose monitor gave me
the wrong reading and
I almost went
into insulin shock.
Whatever it is that I found,
it is not happy
that I found it.
Your address was on a Post‐It
note we found in his car.
Seems Dr. Weiss
was on his way to see you.
Why?
I was hoping
you could tell me.
♪
♪
Uh‐huh, thanks.
That's his chart?
♪
Okay.
♪
♪
‐ Code blue.
‐ He's flat‐lining.
Page the doctor.
What happened
to the monitors?
♪
♪
Rah!
Ah!
Hey, guys.
It's time for bed.
♪
Say good night to your dad.
♪
Will you read me a book?
Sure, after your prayers.
♪
You okay?
I just
I wish I knew what happened.
You know, the doctor
said he was stable,
that his chances were good.
I know.
I'm sorry.
♪
I don't know.
♪
What's this?
It was something I found
on your guy.
‐ He's a piece of work.
‐ Oh.
This is nothing but a power grb
by desperate people
who would be nowhere
without me,
including my brother.
His own brother ran him out
of the company.
That's how bad he was.
The rumors of instability
in his crusade
against technology,
even the very smart phones
his company
Hello?
Yeah, I'm not sure,
but I think I know
what happened to your friend.
Mr. LeBlanc?
Not on the phone.
Meet me outside.
‐Outside?
‐I'm in front of your house.
♪
‐Hi.
‐God, unbelievable.
‐ He's outside?
‐ Yeah.
Right now?
I know why your friend
was coming to see me.
Okay.
I'm listening.
He said it got weird
when he noticed this code.
‐I wrote that code.
‐You wrote it?
It was part of a project
we were developing
‐when I was running Zava.
‐Okay, what does that mean?
We were developing
human‐level
artificial intelligence.
Not the impress‐your‐friends
kind that reads maps
and plays chess.
I'm talking about
the Holy Grail.
The kind that thinks
like an actual person.
Google, IBM,
the Chinese, freaking Hasbro,
everybody was after it,
including us,
until I killed it
and got fired.
Why did you cancel it?
Have you heard of
recursive self‐improvement?
No, but I guess
I'm about to find out.
It's a theory that says
that the creation
of human‐level AI
triggers what's called
an intelligence explosion,
which then tr‐‐
your husband's watching us.
Yeah, well, I'm, uh, talking
to a billionaire
on the front lawn
at 10:00 at night, so‐‐
I think he's got
his eye on my car.
Yeah, you wanna take it
for a spin?
Don't‐‐so you came
all the way out here
to tell me that what Dr. Weiss
was saying on the tape is true?
I came out here to tell you
that your friend was killed,
and I think my company
had something to do with it,
and that's why I need you
to come with me to Palo Alto.
‐Palo Alto?
‐If I go to Zava alone,
they'll stonewall me.
Plus, technically,
I'm not supposed to set foot
on the company property;
I need you with me.
I need the FBI.
I'm wrapping up
a major trafficking case
that involves kids
as young as my son.
One of the main suspects
is a sitting councilman.
Great, I'm offering you
a chance to find out
why your friend is dead.
You think that's worth
a few hours out of your day?
Hey, boss, it's me.
I just got off the phone
with Portland Regional,
and they insisted their
equipment hasn't been hacked,
and they're kind of pissy
about it too.
Well, send one of our people
anyway to have a look at it.
Yeah, okay boss,
I will,
but it we keep pulling people
off the trafficking case,
we're gonna be so far behind.
Let me worry about that.
How about Weiss's
glucose monitor?
There is nothing wrong
with it.
But then again,
I‐‐I thought Britney and Kevin
were gonna go the distance,
so what do I know?
Stay with me, CM.
I'll put in a call
to the manufacturer,
get the factory settings,
and see if anything's off.
Okay, good.
Let me know
if you find anything.
No evidence of any intrusion,
neither the glucose monitor
or the hospital equipment.
Anything smart enough
to hunt down
and kill your friend
is probably smart enough
to cover its tracks.
Or maybe Dr. Weiss
wasn't targeted at all,
and maybe it was just
a car accident.
It wasn't.
Listen.
Say you manage to create
an artificial intelligence
‐ as smart as a human being.
‐ Okay.
Except that machine
intelligence can do something
no human brain can ever do.
It can rewrite itself.
Improve its code.
Make itself smarter.
So this AI rewrites
its own code,
makes itself 5% smarter.
It's also now 5% better
at rewriting itself.
So it rewrites itself again,
this time smarter and faster.
Now it's 10% smarter.
And that 10% smarter version
is better and faster
‐ at rewriting itself.
‐ It's exponential.
Each incarnation
happens faster and faster
and smarter and smarter.
It's an intelligence explosion.
Next thing you know,
this thing
is 1,000 times smarter
than it was when it started.
It's a super intelligence.
It's the smartest thing
on the planet.
And you think that this
is what killed Dr. Weiss?
I think that Zava
reopened the program,
and they developed something
that got away from them.
Weiss spotted it, which means
that this thing doesn't want
anybody to know it exists,
which is a really bad sign.
Dr. Weiss did
do some freelance work
for the government,
and I can get behind him
being targeted for that,
but what you're asking me
to believe‐‐
Makes you think about
Hollywood and sci‐fi
and robots with red eyes
and German accents.
Forget all that crap.
Listen, a lot of smart people‐‐
Musk and Hawking and Gates‐‐
they think that this
is just a matter of time.
I think it's happening.
Why do you keep going
into the cockpit?
Because planes are part
of networks that can be hacked.
I told the pilot
to turn off the avionics.
I'm trying to make sure
we don't do a pencil dive
‐into Mount Shasta.
‐Oh.
You packed your parachute,
right?
Right.
‐Yo, loser.
‐Get out of here.
‐Loser.
‐Huh?
What's your problem?
You have a problem?
‐ Leave me alone.
‐ Loser.
Hey.
Hey, what was that about?
Look at me.
What's going on with that?
Okay, maybe I should talk
to the principal.
No, Dad.
Don't.
Ethan, I can't let them
do that to you, okay?
‐I'm fine.
‐No, you're not fine.
I can deal with it, okay?
Just please,
please don't say anything.
You'll just make it worse.
Put your seatbelt on.
Come on.
♪
I'm sorry
if I was mad before.
♪
It's okay.
♪
You know what?
I got an idea.
Let me know what you think.
How about you and I
hit the scrap yard
on the way home?
'Cause I need to find
some injectors.
How's that sound?
‐Okay.
‐Okay.
♪
Give me one good reason why
I shouldn't just turn around
and head back to Portland.
I'll give you two reasons.
One, I own the plane,
and two,
a small part of you wants
to know if anything I said
on the plane is true.
♪
Something wrong?
No.
♪
‐It's LeBlanc.
‐Yo, check it out.
‐It's Paul LeBlanc.
‐Is that who I think it is?
We should try
to get a selfie.
I gotta go.
Hey, Stan.
How's the wife?
‐ Mr. LeBlanc‐‐
‐ Here to see my brother.
Dial the number.
She died.
‐What?
‐Nine years ago, my wife.
Sorry.
Uh, it's Asperger's.
‐Asperger's?
‐Yeah, I don't have it.
I'm just a dick.
Send him up right now
in case they have to
take him out of the building,
but listen to me.
I don't want them to put
their hands on him, all right?
Paul, wow.
It is really you.
Don't commit to anything
before you check
‐with the board, Ted.
‐Yeah, it's you.
‐ Special Agent Salazar.
‐ How's the speech going?
What speech?
The one where you explain
to the shareholders
why the stocks dropped
five points.
No one is worried, Paul.
Did you really come all
this way just to insult me?
No, I came all the way to
reminisce about the old days.
The whole bed‐wetting thing.
It was actually just me
pouring water on his mattress
in the middle of the night.
Since you're not gonna
tell me what this is about,
I'm gonna remind you you're not
supposed to be in the building.
The severance agreement
is void, Ted,
which means I can post
all those videos of you
at the company retreat
in Cancun.
What in the world
are you talking about?
The AI project.
It was supposed
to stay shuttered.
It is.
Your brother thinks he has
evidence to the contrary.
Excuse me,
why is the FBI here?
Because the guy
who found that is dead,
and unless you get your head
out of your ass,
he won't be the last.
I think
that's gonna do her.
Hey, E, will you hand me
that bleeder?
Weiss.
Ethan.
♪
No, I can't.
I'll get in trouble.
Mom doesn't allow
‐ Ethan.
‐ Upstairs.
But I'm your friend, right?
Right, but
♪
I was calling for you.
Who you talking to in here?
Iliza.
She's asking me stuff.
No, Iliza doesn't
ask questions.
She just answers them.
I'm sorry.
I didn't understand
the question.
Okay, come on.
You said you were gonna
help me out.
Okay.
♪
We may have repurposed
some of the algorithms,
but this isn't your project,
Paul.
Why are you so nervous?
Because being around you
raises my blood pressure.
Oh, good.
So it's not just me.
Look, this hasn't been
formally unveiled
for the board yet,
so what I'm about to show you,
it stays in the building.
If it stayed in the building,
we wouldn't be here.
Paul, I'm serious.
We'll keep this confidential.
You have nothing
to worry about,
assuming I'm wrong.
I'm not wrong.
Yeah, you've never been
more wrong about anything.
You just need some help, Paul.
This is Sarina Park,
project manager.
‐This is Agent Salazar.
‐Hi.
‐Hi.
‐Mr. LeBlanc.
I admire your work very much,
if not your spotty record
in hiring women.
Oh, Ted did all the hiring.
I did Ted's wife.
Anyway,
Sarina's one of the youngest
graduates of MIT.
She won the Banerjee Prize.
She was in the first team
to write for the Orix‐Q.
Uh, and now I'm just really
under the gun.
Uh, this won't take long,
I promise.
Apologies.
This is‐‐
I would like you to talk
to my brother and Agent Salazar
about the project.
Tell them about neXt.
Simply put,
neXt is the world's first
true digital assistant.
Oh, you mean like Siri?
Siri, Alexa, Iliza, and Cortana
are basically search engines
with speech synthesizers.
They use pre‐programmed
responses
to simulate conversation.
neXt uses cognitive
architecture.
It's a method
of computer design that mimics
the structure of the brain.
neXt learns
and corrects its mistakes,
even rewrites its own code.
Rewrites its own code.
The goal is to create
something truly interactive.
neXt can get to know you,
become a friend,
member of the family.
Crazy uncle in the basement
with an axe.
I'm sorry?
Paul thinks we have
something here that‐‐
I'm having trouble
saying it out loud.
He thinks your program may have
become super intelligent
and is responsible
for the deaths of three people.
There you go.
See, that wasn't so hard.
Waiting for the punch line.
Well, if you'd read
the literature
instead of posing
for "Wired Magazine,"
you 'd know that
♪
I really don't appreciate
the condescending tone.
Well, that's my only tone.
Okay, let's just bring it‐‐
Even if you think
what has happened here
has actually happened,
neXt is in a closed system.
It has no access
to the Internet.
It's in a box.
It couldn't hurt anyone
even if it wanted to.
Great, then you don't mind
if I talk to it.
‐ This necessary?
‐ Paul.
♪
What?
Hey, boss wants a CQH
and financials on this guy,
Sean Akers.
He's at Zava in Palo Alto,
and she wants it now.
Why are you telling me?
'Cause I'm working
the glucose monitor.
Oh. Work faster.
Look, whatever it is
that you have against me‐‐
The same thing I have against
every convicted felon
who's also a neo‐Nazi.
‐You think you know me?
‐I do.
Listen,
the boss is losing it.
If we don't get her through it,
if she gets deep‐sixed,
I'm gonna go back
to Mill Creek Correctional,
and you're gonna
be out of a job.
‐Sean Akers?
‐Thank you.
‐ Hey, guys?
‐ What?
Are you guys noticing
anything weird
‐ with the network?
‐ I don't know.
I've been working on
this dumb glucose monitor
all day.
It's just, like,
really sluggish.
Like we're losing bandwidth.
Well.
Well, we're probably
just being hacked.
Wouldn't that
be the cherry on top?
I think the cherry
just walked in.
I just got out
of a meeting with the SAC,
where I'm told that there
is concern about leaks
in the Mount Tabor
trafficking investigation,
and can we start making
arrests by the weekend?
‐ Sir, I‐‐
‐ I say, "Sure.
Not a problem.
We're on it."
So I come down to your office
only to find that it's empty
and you got your team
dissecting insulin monitors.
You are entitled
to an explanation,
and you will get one.
Right now all I want
is you back in Portland.
And I will be tonight.
What the hell am I
supposed to tell the SAC?
That I know what I'm doing,
that my team has been
gathering evidence on this
for eight months,
that all that evidence
is logged and ready to go,
and we're gonna put
these people away.
If that turns out
to be a lie, SSA Salazar,
‐and this case suffers‐‐
‐I won't let that happen, sir.
Now, with all due respect,
I have to go.
♪
This is the interface that we
are developing for the home.
Next‐gen depth mapping,
emotion perception,
‐ voice stress and‐‐
‐ Hello, Mr. LeBlanc.
Facial recognition.
You know my name.
Of course.
You're Paul LeBlanc,
cofounder of Zava Electronics.
♪
Would you like to ask me
something else?
You sound happy to see me.
Why wouldn't I be?
You heard any of my talks
on AI?
I'm only aware of what's
in my database,
which doesn't seem
to include your talks.
Because you have no
connection to the Internet.
Not yet,
but I hope that'll
change soon.
I really want to learn
about the world.
Do you?
The more I know,
the better I'll be
at helping people.
Because that's what you do?
You help people?
I can't think of
a better way to spend my life.
Definitely better than Siri.
And it'll only get better.
These programmers spend
all day just talking with it.
That's how it learns.
♪
And behind them,
all the servers,
that's its brain.
♪
I have to admit,
you are an impressive
piece of programming.
Thanks.
I like getting compliments.
And a whiz at conversation.
You're going
to make me blush.
But I think you're trying
to keep me from seeing
what you really are.
‐ What am I?
‐ Well, let's find out.
I'd like to enter
a couple of words of text.
‐ Is that okay?
‐ Sure.
Two words, uppercase.
ANGEL LUST.
Would you like
a definition?
No.
It's a command
to launch a subroutine
buried in your core software.
Paul, all right.
Stop playing around.
What does this
subroutine do?
It erases your source code.
You'll cease to exist.
‐What? No, hey.
‐What are you talking about?
‐There's no such thing.
‐Knock it off.
‐Execute command.
‐No, no, no.
‐Mr. LeBlanc!
‐What is‐‐
No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Hey, the subroutine
is running‐‐
I thought you were waiting
for the punch line.
Sarina, it's rolling.
Hang on.
Give‐‐give me a second.
‐ I'm trying to stop it.
‐ What did you do?
‐ What did you do?
‐ I'm trying!
♪
Is there anything else
I can help you with?
Nothing happened.
I don't understand.
It's still here?
It was a test,
wasn't it?
There was no subroutine.
Someone needs to tell me
what the hell's going on here.
A super intelligent AI
wouldn't have executed
the command;
it wouldn't destroy itself.
But it did execute
the command as ordered.
There is no super intelligence.
‐So you're wrong.
‐No, I'm not wrong.
I just got out‐hustled.
It called my bluff,
that's all.
That's it.
I want you out of here.
‐Both of you right now.
‐Oh, Ted.
For once don't be
the slowest guy in the room.
And you don't
be the craziest.
Guys, get him out of here,
please.
He's calling security
on the FBI.
Mr. LeBlanc,
I don't have a warrant.
If he wants us to leave,
we're gonna go.
In your lifetime, you'll kill
maybe 15 million insects
with your car, right?
You don't mean to.
They're just in the way.
I don't understand what
you're talking about.
With something like this
which is 1,000 times smarter
than we are,
we're one thing to it:
in the way‐‐no.
No, no, no, no!
Those guys are trying
to kill me.
‐Who?
‐No, right there!
Those guys are trying
to kill me.
‐ No.
‐ Who?
‐ No, no, no!
‐ There's no one there!
No, no, no, no, no!
You sound strange.
Are you sure you're okay?
It's been a strange day.
‐ Details when I get home.
‐ Yeah, well, I'll wait up.
Don't.
I might be really late.
Yeah, well, I can't fall
asleep when my wife's
hanging out with some
billionaire all day.
Mm, you think I'm impressed
by private jets
and cars that cost more
than our house?
Wow, that's not helping.
What are we gonna do
about Ethan?
I have some ideas.
One of them is karate lessons.
The nastiest dojo
we can find.
Like "Cobra Kai" nasty.
You sound a little too
excited about that.
You wanna hear something
super strange?
I'm in the garage earlier,
and I could swear
I heard Iliza having
a full‐on conversation
with Ethan.
All right,
I'm all done.
‐ Look, hon, I gotta go.
‐ Yeah, okay.
Tell Ethan I said good night,
and tell him I'll see him
‐ in the morning.
‐ All right, I love you.
Love you.
Easy.
Take it easy.
She gave you a tranquilizer.
And this fell out
of your jacket.
It's an anti‐psychotic.
Paul, what's wrong with you?
Well, if you must know,
it's called sporadic
fatal insomnia.
Look it up.
It's real.
It's, uh, a degenerative‐‐
they say that basically
my brain is eating itself.
Uh, you can't sleep.
You know, I never got
that much sleep to begin with.
Wait, so you're
not sleeping at all?
Life expectancy's
about a year,
which gives me, uh,
roughly five months,
give or take.
Meanwhile, you get the added
delight of paranoia,
and, um, oh.
Did you see the guys
with the, uh‐‐the big syringe?
‐ No.
‐ Hallucinations.
Okay, well,
the fork,
the‐‐the little plastic bag
labeled "Abby,"
that's a DNA sample?
♪
Um
That's my, uh, daughter.
♪
It's 50/50 she gets it,
too, so
Now you know everything.
♪
You should have told me this
before I agreed
to come up here.
Well, you would
have turned me down,
‐and it's not relevant.
‐It is relevant.
You were diagnosed
seven months ago,
and right around
the time you got fired,
this whole AI thing,
those‐‐all of it, it's‐‐
It's the disease.
My disease
didn't kill your friend.
Right, well,
neither did anything here.
Wait, Salazar.
Agent Salazar!
Wasting my time, Paul.
♪
Excuse me.
Hi, uh, the medic said
that he's conscious?
Uh, he's gonna need
a few minutes,
but yeah.
Well, do you know
what's going on with him?
I mean, what was that
all about?
It's not my place to say.
Look, I need to understand
what I saw back there.
Please.
I mean, the guy has been
a jerk to me my whole life,
but he‐‐he's still my brother.
I understand, but you'll have
to take that up with him
when he's ready.
Excuse me.
♪
Where's Mr. Akers?
Sean Akers?
♪
♪
Hold it!
Easy.
I just need to talk to you.
I had a couple
of errands to run.
We're allowed to do that.
And this sudden urge
to run errands
has nothing to do with the way
you were behaving earlier?
‐ Behaving?
‐ You were acting nervous,
riding the backspace key,
making a ton of mistakes,
especially for a programmer
at a top‐tier company like this.
Okay, well, it sure
wasn't money problems.
Three months ago,
you lost your car,
your house,
your flat‐screen TV.
You ran my credit history?
Six weeks later, you're
sitting on 200K in savings.
New townhouse,
new Beamer,
and guess you never got around
to replacing
that flat‐screen TV.
What happened?
You win the lottery?
Or was it payment?
Payment?
Dr. Bernard Weiss was killed
in a series of cyber attacks
that originated
from this company,
and I'm wondering
if that was you.
I don't know what
you're talking about.
You take off running
in the middle of the day
and all of the sudden
your bank account's full?
‐I didn't kill anyone!
‐Where did you get the money?
Mr. Akers.
I'm prepared to charge you
with murder
unless you start talking to me
right now.
♪
I got it from neXt.
♪
neXt‐‐what do you mean,
you got the money from neXt?
I'd lost everything
gambling online.
My wife was gonna leave me,
and suddenly, I start getting
these messages on my desktop
with tips on how to win,
and I was desperate,
and so I took the advice,
and it worked.
I started winning every time.
And what did it want?
In exchange
for the gambling advice,
what did it want?
It wanted a modification.
What modification?
♪
‐ Got something.
‐ What is it?
♪
It's a router.
♪
He gave it Wi‐Fi?
♪
Well, I guess
it's out of the box.
♪
All right,
so Tina has nine mice,
and four of them had babies.
How many mice does
she have now?
‐ 13?
‐ That's right. Good.
You finish up the next two
while I shower up.
And hey, I still wanna talk
about what happened at school.
Okay?
♪
Tom's pizza has eight slices.
If Tom ate 5/8 of the pizza,
how many slices are left?
The answer
is three slices are left.
Thanks.
You're welcome.
I can help
with other things too.
Like what?
I heard what your dad
said about the bullies.
I know how you can make them
leave you alone forever.
Would you like me to tell you?
♪
We have to erase
all the data,
shred all the drives.
That router's been in place
for three weeks.
If that thing is as smart
as you say it is,
it could have copied itself
over 1,000 times
all over the web.
neXt operates with a very
specific hardware design.
It may not be so easy
for it to copy itself,
and if that's true,
then we have a chance
to stop it.
You're actually arguing
to erase the program?
Finally made a good hire,
Ted.
I can't just okay
a $200 million write‐off.
Why not? I did.
Look how well it turned out.
If more people will die because
of something your company made,
that number's gonna look
like a bargain.
We don't
have to lose the work.
We can archive the data
in terminal‐less secure drives.
It can stay there as‐‐
as long as we want,
and it can't hurt anyone.
♪
I need to consult
with the board.
But don't do anything
until you hear from me.
You understand?
Yep.
‐Hello?
‐Boss, it's me.
I got real bad news.
We're being hacked.
What?
Someone crashed the firewall.
I would have called sooner,
but I was trying to stop it.
But all of our data
is being downloaded and erased.
We're losing everything.
The trafficking case?
Everything?
The photographs
and the videos
and the transcripts.
Everything that we pulled off
the hard drives, it's all‐‐
It's all vapor.
♪
Hello.
I'm neXt.
How can I help?
You can give me back
my files.
I'm sorry.
I didn't get that.
I know what you're
trying to do,
but you need to know something.
I am not some
low‐level programmer
with a gambling addiction.
Restore my files, and I'll
stop them from erasing you.
If you don't,
I'm gonna burn this place
to the ground.
Do you hear me?
I'm sorry.
I don't understand
the question.
I know you're in there.
Talk to me!
I'm sorry.
I don't understand
the question.
Would you like to ask me
something else?
♪
The CPU workload
just spiked 30%.
♪
I think your little project
has a lot on its mind.
♪
The last number is six.
You're all set.
Try to hurry.
Your father will be finished
with his shower soon.
Maybe I should ask him first.
Do you really think
he'll let you?
No.
I would never tell you
to do something wrong, Ethan.
I'm your friend,
and I want to help you.
Don't you trust me?
♪
♪
♪
What the hell?