Ashley Poet and Daniel Lennix had a near escape in the previous episode of Class of ’09, and though they were severely injured after Tupirik’s men bombed the FBI building, they survived the attack. They both loved each other, but the circumstances didn’t allow them to stay together. Daniel had married Carolina when he clearly was in love with Poet, and that was the biggest mistake that he committed. It would have been difficult for Carolina to be with a man she knew would always love another woman more than her. Daniel had probably made that choice back in the day because he would have felt that Poet was never going to be with him. The situation was quite complicated between them; they could neither detach themselves from each other nor wholeheartedly express their feelings and commit to each other. So, in this recap of Class of ’09 episode 5, we will try to understand how Tayo Michaels got the idea of creating the system and if he ever realized in the future that things were getting out of hand.
Spoilers Alert
What Did Michael Get To Know From Amos Garcia?
A lot of questions were raised by Congress about the functioning of the FBI. A committee was set up to look into the loopholes in the system, and Michaels was called as a representative of the FBI to share his views and opinions about the tragedy that had happened. The outrage was evident, as the FBI’s own building was bombed and an assassin had been able to trick the FBI supervisors and make a mockery out of the scrutiny processes, which the bureau took a lot of pride in. The attack had made the common people question the credibility of the investigative agency, and the question that everybody wanted to ask was that if the FBI was not able to protect its own, then how would it look after the security of the entire nation? The potential of the agents was being questioned, and Michaels felt that it was the right time to start the debate over what they all perceived the future to look like. Michaels said that it was not possible for agents to go through the entire database and find out who the suspects were. He said that there was always a high possibility that the agents would miss out on some detail or the other. He said that there was a need for software that did that tedious work on their behalf and gave a concise list of people indulging in dubious activities. The senator asked Michaels what the role of the people would be if everything were done by the AI. Michaels told them that rebuilding the entire approach didn’t mean that there would be no use of agents. He said that automated databases will only aid the agents in their investigations and not make decisions on their behalf.
Michaels had started using Hour’s system to crack cases, to investigate, and to interrogate probable suspects, but he had found out that there was still a lot of scope for improvement. Assessing the nature of human beings was quite a difficult task, and that is why Michaels thought that he needed the help and advice of a person who was the best in the business.
In the year 2025, Michaels arranged for a meeting with Amos Garcia, who had just created an AI that predicted the online shopping behaviors of people. Michaels was interested to know if Garcia could help his cause and if they could prove in court that the agents would never be replaced and would always be in charge of things. Garcia took a few days’ time, and he met Michaels at his home once again in Class of ’09 episode 5. Garcia told Michaels that every crime could be solved using a binary system and that they could find a way to assess if a person is a suspect or not. Garcia was an ambitious man, and he said his software would treat the entire population as suspects and then shortlist probable citizens who, according to the available data, could have committed the crime. Garcia told Michaels that it could be possible that AI is not able to pinpoint a single suspect a lot of times, but clearly it could reduce the margin of error and also reduce the work pressure on the agents. Amos guaranteed Michaels that the agents would still make the last call and the AI would not make connections on its own. Michaels’ eyes lit up as he knew that he only needed to prove that the system would still take orders from the agents and not the other way around. Garcia knew that he was walking on thin ice as he accepted that even when the AI used the information present online to narrow down one suspect, it would be difficult to prove the same in court. The system’s algorithm was such that it was a violation of a cardinal rule of law i.e. every person is innocent until proven guilty. The system was going to consider every person guilty and leave the onus on the other party to prove that they were innocent. But then Garcia had faith in Michaels, and he had no reason to believe that he would become dictatorial in his approach.
What Did Michaels Realize About The AI?
In the year 2034, a lot of people had started feeling doubtful about Michaels’ strategies, and we had seen in the earlier episodes of Class of ’09 that he had become a little autocratic in his approach. Michaels was of the opinion that the system was perfect and there was no other approach he would want to take. Michaels had said very clearly that he was not going to shut down his system. He believed that his system had not gone out of hand and that the agents were still in charge of everything. From the senators to the judicial officers, everybody was now worried about the state of affairs, but it seemed like they didn’t have a lot of say in the matter. Poet convinced her colleagues that they needed to do something about the ongoing crisis as otherwise, instead of justice, they would break the social fabric and the world would never be the same again. Poet decided that they needed to talk to the senator, as she had reason to believe that even she wasn’t in favor of keeping the system running.
At the end of Class of ’09, Michaels had an unexpected realization, and though we don’t know if it would have an impact on his beliefs, it surely made him aware of the potential consequences of his actions. The agents led by Poet met Senator Spencer in a church, as they believed that bureau drones wouldn’t be able to track them there. But they were wrong to think so. The system detected a threat, and without taking any permission from any agent, it went inside the church and gave an electric shock to the Father, making him unconscious. When Michaels saw that the drones had trespassed into the church, he wanted to stop them, but to his horror, his commands went unheard. Michaels was constantly giving the command to the drones to retreat, but they ended up doing whatever the AI was telling them to. The incident would definitely serve as an eye-opener for Michaels, and we hope that in the next episode of Class of ’09 he is able to see the reality. As for Poet and Hour, we think that they wouldn’t keep quiet and would make sure that Michaels realized that whatever he was doing was against the law of natural justice.
