Yesterday morning,
in an office building,
a fire broke out in a company's
server room and k*lled an employee.
In less than 24 hours, the
Prosecutor's Office dismissed the case.
DISMISSED
An investigation by Gabriel Vntoru
24 hours?
The fire was just put out, and you
already closed the investigation?
For the fire investigation alone this
file should have been reviewed for a week.
Plus the autopsy.
That also takes a few more days.
So, in the morning, the fire broke out,
and by noon, you already have the file
at the Prosecutor's Office? Seriously?
And there's something else.
The press release given by the
company where the incident took place,
came out 2 hours before the
Prosecutor's Office dismissal.
And with all this,
both have the same result.
Almost 30 pages, of which more than
half are procedural papers.
But the firemen's report
has only one page.
Only one lousy page.
It doesn't even explain what
rules did the poor man break.
They took over this explanation
from the company,
copy-pasted and finished the file.
But if you look at the company's press
release, this part is almost identical.
Unreal!
Thank you for agreeing to talk.
Can you tell me a little about the events
- ...that led to the incident on May 23rd?
- Yes, of course.
That morning, one of the servers
had a problem.
More precisely, the fans
didn't work for more than an hour,
which led to the overheating
of that server.
Above all, a short circuit took place,
which led to a fire breaking out in
the entire server room.
And what is Eremia's connection
to this incident?
As I was telling you, a series of
unfortunate events led to this event.
And our employee, Eremia ofan, was in the
server room when the fire broke out there.
Correct. This is also written in
the prosecutor's report
as well as in
your press release.
My question is, what was
Eremia doing there?
Because he was working
in another department.
- Yes, that's right.
- Not in the IT department.
He was working in the testing department.
Because of a non-compliance
with internal rules.
That's why he was there.
And what was he doing there?
I don't know what his motivation was.
All I can confirm is that
he shouldn't have been in that room
and that the internal rules
weren't followed.
And why didn't he come out?
Because when a fire breaks out
in the server room,
the doors automatically close.
And the sprinkler system should
also activate automatically,
only that on that day there was a delay
and this delay was unfortunately fatal.
But...
he shouldn't have been in that room.
The people who have access to that room
are also instructed how to get out of it
in case of such extreme events.
I understand.
What I find interesting is
that this conclusion,
that it was exclusively his fault,
was taken over immediately, and
identically, by the Prosecutor's Office.
Right.
Yes.
Because these were the facts.
And this is the reality.
Well, in two hours,
it seemed to me a bit...
Well, if you now want to insinuate
that we would have influenced
in any way
the investigation
of the Prosecutor's Office
know that you are wrong.
We are not the kind of company
that intervenes in the justice process.
And yes,
the two investigations have the same
conclusion because
this is the reality.
We are talking about a
collective trauma, after all,
whether we are talking about
his family or about us
all his colleagues from Futura AI.
Eremia was the best boy
we could have ever wanted.
He would run from school
as the hours ended.
He would run home to help us with work.
He didn't want to leave us
alone with all the work.
He worked next to us
until the sun went down.
And then he would go to school.
Was it hard for you when
he left for the city?
Of course it was hard, but I think
it was even harder for him.
Why?
Well, Eremia was a bit of a loner.
He was a good boy, but he
couldn't make too many friends.
I think when he left for the city,
for college, it was very hard for him.
Yes. The very few friends he had...
he had lost contact with them.
And there, in Bucharest,
with all those people around,
my Eremia couldn't find his place.
Did he tell you anything about this?
No, he was keeping these
things for himself.
Poor thing, he didn't want to
burden us with his sorrows.
But you should know that we
understood what was happening.
Do you think this loneliness
of his led to the accident?
God forbid!
Eremia was such a good man,
and he was afraid of God.
And after the accident,
did anyone in the press contact you
to ask anything about this?
Well, who would look for us?
You were the first one who insisted
on coming here, to ask us about our son.
That day, when they put him in the news,
they didn't even say his name
as if he was a homeless person.
And from the police,
from the Prosecutor's Office?
Well, from the police we
know that he was in the fire.
And since then, no one has called us.
And do you plan to do something
to hold these people accountable?
What can we do?
Can't you see we are two grieving
and broken old people
cause our only son died?
Do I have the strength to go
to Bucharest from door to door
to yell at those b*stards?
And from the company where he
worked did anyone contact you?
Yes, they called the next day.
They said they were going to
investigate, to see what happened,
and that they were going to
give us his salary for this month.
But until now, we haven't
received anything.
The case of Eremia ofan,
the employee who died in the fire
from the headquarters of Futura AI,
deserves an investigation.
As far as I understood,
he was a calm, quiet man
who respected
the rules all his life,
and who wouldn't have gotten
into a conflict
with other people or the authorities.
Therefore, the company's conclusion,
that he would have intentionally
violated the internal rules,
and that's why he ended
up in the fire zone,
is slightly uncharacteristic
of his personality.
In addition to that,
the Prosecutor's Office's investigation
is rather threadbare,
because you don't close the file
and stop the criminal investigation
after only 24 hours.
Now, we have a victim of a fire,
about which the prosecution
says it was an accident.
I find that hard to believe.
The Prosecutor's Office
took the conclusions
and the company's internal investigation,
without digging deeper,
and hurried to close the case.
I believe that what happened there
has nothing to do with the
investigation from the file
or with the press statements
of the company.
We're calling Eremia's manager,
who hasn't answered us so far, neither by
e-mail, nor by messages, nor by anything.
Let's try again.
So...
the manager doesn't want to talk.
- Yes, hello!
- Hello, Mr. Marcel Stanciu?
It's me, hello!
I'm Gabriel Vntoru,
independent journalist.
I'd like to ask you a few questions about
the incident that took place at Futura AI.
I understand that you worked exactly
on the day when the fire happened.
Yes, that's right, but I can't talk
about this. Have a good day! Bye-bye!
I understand.
Futura AI is an important client for us.
We're just about to integrate
into the insurance policy
a new data center that
they're building at the moment.
So, the compensation process was based
on an extremely important business
relationship with this client.
I'm sure, but even so, didn't you have
to carry out your own investigation?
I assure you that we respected
all the internal rules,
as well as those stipulated
and imposed by the law in force.
So, those from Futura AI provided you
with all the information?
Or did you question them?
How does it work?
My colleagues received absolutely
all the necessary information
from the security department of Futura AI.
They concluded that we can move
forward with this compensation process.
Yes, but... so fast?
There was also a casualty.
Isn't that strange?
It's true, there were certain...
certain suspicions regarding the presence
of the employee in the server area.
But, as I mentioned,
my colleagues received
all the necessary information.
It seems to me that you based
your investigation
strictly on the information
received from Futura AI.
Or, it would seem normal to me
to carry out an investigation yourselves.
No, we didn't draw the conclusions
strictly based
on the information received
from the client.
They went through an
internal verification process.
As for the expertise, yes,
there were certain administrative delays
and decisions that hampered the process.
Can you elaborate a bit on the
problems that hampered the process?
Of course. The server center is vital
for our client, Futura AI.
Therefore, starting a process
of renovating the burned space
was necessary, vital, immediately after
the completion of the legal investigation.
In addition, our client wanted
to minimize the negative impact
that this kind of tragic event has
on the morale of the employees.
A quick renovation process
only helped them navigate
through this trauma more easily.
So, Futura AI started the renovation
process immediately after the incident,
using the morale of the
employees as an excuse,
and that's why you didn't
have access to that room
to carry out your own investigation.
- Is that what you're saying?
- I think I was very clear from the start.
The entire verification process
was an internal one. A thorough one.
It was done by a team of colleagues who
accumulated over 30 years of experience
in the field of insurance fraud.
They came to the conclusion that
there is nothing wrong with that accident.
It's true, it was a tragic one
and it had an innocent victim.
We stand by our client
and their employees,
to help them navigate
through this trauma.
We were three high school friends,
passionate about programming since little.
We remained friends
in college and even after that,
when we got hired at
the first jobs in Bucharest.
We would often meet for a drink
and talk about the future of the world,
about how techy we will become.
And one day, also over a beer,
Radu came up with the crazy idea
for all of us to resign,
move into an apartment
and start coding an AI.
What did you think of this idea?
The idea that we could
do something revolutionary
convinced us to drop
everything and take the plunge.
In a month we were already
moved into the appartment,
the so-called headquarters
and we were brainstorming.
And who came up with the
idea of content moderation?
Radu came up with the idea.
Petre and I were insisting to
make a Jarvis, like in Iron Man.
But one day, Radu showed us a report
about the awful videos
that get on Facebook
because there is no time to be moderated.
And the videos of some journalists,
for example,
are taken down by propaganda bots.
It's a desolate situation, but
it was an opportunity for us.
And from the idea to the prototype,
how long...?
We started as soon as we agreed.
We worked day and night,
we were sleeping next to the office.
We would wake up, start coding,
go to sleep, wake up,
and start it all over again.
And in a year and a half,
we already had the first beta version.
And what happened next?
Well, after all these successes,
they found more investors
and released some new
updates for their product
which reduced the moderation
times even more.
And sooner than two years, they were
listed at the New York Stock Exchange.
It was the second Romanian company after
UiPath that managed this performance.
And how could they be listed if
they didn't have a solid gross revenue?
Sometimes, on Wall Street, the hype alone
and the prospect of big future incomes
is enough to throw you
into a stratosphere.
Plus, they had an ace up their sleeve.
Twitter.
- Twitter?
- Yes, yes, yes.
All of this was happening after
the events of January 6th, 2021,
when Trump had managed to lead a live
insurrection directly from their platform,
and they needed a
way to get away with it.
They had kicked Trump out off
the platform, but it wasn't enough.
And then they signed a
collaboration contract with Futura AI.
I suppose that this was
their turning point.
Yes, yes, yes.
You can imagine.
They were going to be
implemented directly in the platform.
The tests were looking great.
The investors were very happy.
And from that moment on,
how did the company evolve?
The company evolved very well.
Unfortunately, our friendship
was eroding little by little.
Radu was obsessed with the stock market.
He was only interested in the financial
part and Petre followed him suit.
And how did you feel?
Abandoned.
I know it sounds naive,
but I really got into
this adventure believing
that we were going
to change the Internet,
which was taking a worse to worse turn.
I really thought that the three of us
would be those friends
who were going to change this.
Unfortunately, I was the
remaining one who believed this.
And what did you decide?
Well, for the moment I said
to hold on a little longer.
To go on with the listing
and the project with Twitter.
I thought that,
I don't know, the waters would calm down
and we would return to our ethos
that convinced us to start this.
But after the listing,
Radu already wanted to sign
with a second big client.
His was dreaming only to grow
and increase the stock market share.
And the board that was established
after the listing
was pushing for the same agenda.
The question that torments us all...
What was Eremia doing in the server room?
According to my attributes and
my role within the company,
I don't think I can
answer this question.
I don't know what were
the motivations and thoughts
that pushed Eremia to
enter the server room.
Ok, I understand.
Maybe I asked the wrong question.
How did Eremia physically
get into the server room?
I can't answer this question.
We were also surprised by this incident.
I don't understand why.
Aren't you the security department?
In order to enter the building,
someone had to come and let me in.
In order to enter a company,
someone had to come and let me in.
I understand that each
employee has an entry card
that allows them to enter
different areas of the building.
Plus, all the security cameras.
Despite all this,
it seems that no one knows how Eremia
ended up in the middle of a fire.
Yes, we have all these
systems and information,
but things are a bit more
complicated than that.
What's complicated? He ended up
in an area where he had no access.
This means that he used a card
that he received or stole.
Whose card was it?
I can't neither confirm or infirm
this statement
because it concerns
the internal security
and confidentiality processes
of our company.
What's interesting
is the fact that both investigations
omitted
mentioning the surveillance cameras.
It's a bit suspicious.
It doesn't say anything about this.
If I had investigated this,
it would have been one of the first
things I would have done.
Let's look at the surveillance
cameras, that's why we put them there.
That's how we can
find out how he got in.
Regarding Futura AI
and the investigation you recently
did at their headquarters.
With the fire, yes.
I'm interested to know if you
have any information,
or if you received from the company
footage from the surveillance cameras.
I think it's quite important.
From what I've seen, you omitted
mentioning this in the investigation file.
He sent me to you.
Then who's actually in charge?
I've told you...
HE sent me to you.
I understand.
Well, I'll call him again, then.
But don't tell him that...
or he won't answer anymore.
Thank you and excuse me.
Jesus.
I don't think Eremia walked
into that server room by mistake.
And the fact that the company
representatives
do not want to tell us
how he got there and why,
and with what card,
even though they know it,
well, it seems a bit suspicious.
Obviously.
I don't have any evidence yet and I
haven't found anyone to corroborate
the fact that it could be a cover-up,
but we're only getting started.
I don't even know how much sense it
makes to talk to the company's employees.
That is if they'll still let me do it.
Because I have the impression
that the communication department
is serving me on a conveyor belt
people trained to tell me
the same official story.
Hello, Mr. Popa!
- You waited for me in the hallway?
- I figured you had to go home.
So, you worked on the report
that is at the basis of
the prosecutor's file, correct?
Yes, it's correct.
Following your request,
we took out all the files
related to the company Futura AI,
with the headquarters in Bucharest.
And we were going to respond
by email within the legal term.
Why don't we talk now?
Besides, the case was already dismissed.
That's what I want to discuss.
I think the public has the right to
know why it was dismissed so quickly.
If you agree... At the camera... Your
name and your role in the investigation.
On May 23rd, there was a fire at an
office building on Splaiul Independenei.
Fire that resulted in one victim.
After my colleagues extinguished
the last sparks of the fire,
I went to the scene of the event
to investigate the causes
and the way in which the events
related to the fire occurred.
Can you elaborate on
how the fire took place?
There were two
independent events.
The first was a failure of some
fans on some servers,
which generated excessive
heat to the point of ignition.
The second was a short circuit
that generated a flame
right in the area where the aforementioned
technical malfunction occurred.
So, two technical failures,
one after the other, so random?
From my experience, the random nature of
these types of events cannot be explained.
And how do you explain that
the sprinkler system
started one minute later,
and the room was already on fire?
Yes, the sensor had
a delay in its triggering.
It was recording the smoke, but it
was not triggering the water system.
I repeat, if the system had
worked in normal parameters,
there would have been no fire and
we would not have talked about it.
But what was the chance that
this system wouldn't work either?
Extremely small.
Almost zero.
That's why we don't have such events
every day. They're extremely rare.
Or do you expect us to calculate
them to see when the next one occurs?
So, we can't blame the
company for this fire?
They followed all the safety rules,
they had all the documents,
all the approvals in order.
If we are to blame someone,
I don't know, maybe...
the entrepreneur who ex*cuted
that part of the circuit.
And in connection with the
victim who died in the fire?
Mister.
I only know what happened.
That's how it is written in my report.
It's not my job to find out what was that
employee doing there or why he was there.
Maybe it was cold and
he wanted to take a nap,
or he wanted to steal
the company's secrets.
I don't know. These are pure
speculations that won't help us.
What is important to mention is that
that employee was not allowed to be there.
So, he put himself in danger.
I think I answered all
the legitimate questions.
If you need more information,
please contact the
Public Relations Department.
I understand.
- During working hours, if possible.
- Good.
- Thank you very much, Mr. Popa.
- Yes, um...
With respect.
I'm still trying to find out
how did Eremia enter the server room,
because he didn't have
an access card and...
You keep on calling.
You've been calling my
colleagues constantly.
You've been calling me as well.
It's not my job.
I find it incredible that no
one knows whose card it was.
It's not my job.
Ask the Security.
I'm in charge of the servers.
I take care of how many cables
go into that server and that's it.
It's not my business to
know whose card it was.
Talk to my colleague from Security or
talk again to my colleague from PR.
- Why do you keep on calling me?
- Got it.
I need to know that
the server is working.
- Why do you ask me whose card it was?
- That's exactly why I was asking you.
It's the server that you take care of,
so you probably care who goes
in and who goes out.
But... I... This is a security issue.
The firefighters came, the
police came, the prosecutor came.
Why do you keep asking me this sh*t?
Because no one answers to me.
No one answers to me.
- Hello? Good day!
- Good day!
Mr. Marian Stoica?
Yes, who is this?
Hello, I'm Gabriel Vntoru,
an independent journalist.
I'm investigating Futura AI and I
understood that you worked there.
Yes, I did.
I don't know if you heard about Eremia.
I heard about it. Yes.
Is the investigation related
to his death?
Yes, I mean,
I'd like for us, if you also agree,
to talk a little about Eremia.
Not necessarily about
what happened recently
because we have nothing to do with it.
But I'd like to know more
about him as a person and...
I understood that you were a high
school classmate with Eremia ofan.
Yes, that's right. I was.
I don't know if you heard
about the recent incident.
It would help me a lot if you told
me a little about him as a person.
I'm trying to understand what happened.
He wasn't the most sociable.
He was an introvert.
He never hung out with the
popular kids, so to speak.
He cared about his learning.
If someone asked him for
anything, he was very helpful.
He even helped me a few times.
He gave me his notebooks,
he let me copy the homework.
What do you think was Eremia's
experience at the university?
I don't know if he liked
Bucharest very much,
in the sense that he didn't adapt.
He was, as I said,
more introverted.
And anyway, from a certain age,
it gets more difficult to make friends,
relationships.
When we were in high school,
we were taking him with us.
"Let's have a beer", we used
to take him to a party.
But in Bucharest, I don't really think
he got along too well with his colleagues.
Did you stay in touch after college?
Did you ever talk?
He called me about 2 years ago.
I didn't recognize him at first.
He had something in his voice...
He was extremely optimistic.
That surprised me.
He kept insisting on going
with him to some event
on Sunday, at a Baptist church.
Either he had converted, or he
was just attending services.
But what I liked, and what
made me happy for him,
was that it seemed as
he had found his place.
After all this time, he could
be somewhere... himself.
Practically, the AI, even the one
Futura was developing,
needs content to be able to make
decisions.
It needs tens of thousands,
hundreds of thousands of entries,
with all kinds of content, so it knows
the moment something nasty comes up.
And here we intervened,
the content testing team.
Basically, we were manually taking
these tens of thousands,
hundreds of thousands of inputs
and were flagging what was wrong with
them so the AI knew if it's good or bad.
Can you tell me what kind of
content we're talking about?
Bad.
The worst misfortunes you can
think of: r*pes, murders, beatings.
Practically, we had to
do this 8 hours a day.
We took them one by one, we watched them,
and we made a report
with which the AI was fed.
It sounds like an extremely hard
job, no matter how strong you are.
It is, yes. Especially when you
have to do it from morning to night.
And the company?
Did they support you in any way?
- Did they take any action to help you?
- Yes, they did.
They took a lot of actions.
The most important one is that
they offered performance bonuses.
Meaning the more videos you were watching,
the more money you were making.
Wow! I see.
Is that all?
They also did a corporate
thing at some point.
They announced loud and proud
that they would offer us mental health,
since we are doing a sensitive job.
I wonder how were people coping.
They weren't.
It took about two weeks until the first
mass resignations began to appear,
after which the department
turned into a kind of railway station.
People came, left, and
never stayed too long.
We were like on the
Amazon packing line.
The next step would have been to
relieve ourselves in a bottle.
The atmosphere was so terrible.
I couldn't resist and started to
comment and get into conflicts.
With whom?
With the team leader.
He told me one day that I went to the
bathroom three times before lunchtime
and I couldn't take it anymore and
I yelled at him like crazy.
And how did your colleagues react?
No one was surprised because everyone
was doing their best to handle it.
Some were crying in
the bathroom,
others were smoking five cigarettes
during break time.
And how long did you resist?
Very little.
I started to argue with the
team leader every day
and in a short time the HR took me aside
and explained to me that
my attitude leads to the
decline of the team's morale.
Damn b*stards!
So, people sat there for hours
and wrote reports about r*pes,
and they, you see, cared
about the morale of the team.
My negative attitude
obviously continued
and in a short time I was called
to the last discussion
where I was offered two salaries and
a voucher for six therapy sessions
because apparently I underwent
a difficult period of stress.
And the people in the
company were aware of...
- Yes.
- They did the hiring.
Everyone knew. Everyone.
HR, management,
upper management, founders, everyone.
Did you interact with Eremia in any way?
Very little.
He was very busy
and quite introverted.
I also saw other things
that struck me a little.
He had a spark.
I don't know if he was
naive or very optimistic,
but he really believed in
the company's philosophy.
And he somehow hoped that
this AI that Futura is developing,
will, at some point, be able to stop this
lousy content from escaping the Internet.
We have it.
OK, so someone from the company who
wanted to remain anonymous, of course,
and who found out about
my investigation gave me
some internal materials
used by those from Futura AI.
They told me it is a presentation
for the new employees,
to see what company they are
joining and a series of emails.
This is the presentation.
It sounds extremely praiseworthy.
It's talking about the company's activity.
I quote: "Like other organizations
like UNICEF or the Red Cross",
the work we do to
develop our AI project
is crucial for humanity.
You will have the opportunity
to contribute
to the creation of a new Internet
"in which the harmful content
will never surface again."
We are safe.
We can sleep in peace.
They told me there were emails related to
the company's promises to the employees
about the mental health program.
So... in 2019 the first email
excitedly announced.
I quote: "We know that the work you
do has a strong emotional impact
and this may require therapeutic help.
We implemented a subscription to
mental health services
for the entire team."
Yes, very nice.
So, only six months later
the company comes back
with an e-mail full of apologies
in which it informs its employees
that for financial reasons
the mental health program
is being discontinued.
But it promises to them
that they will make an internal
program in which they will
continue to support their employees.
In other words, if you didn't catch
those complementary therapy hours...
our thoughts and prayers.
I liked him the first time
he came to our church.
He didn't talk much, but
you could tell that he was
a good and gentle man.
I felt this all the time
when I was with him.
And even if he was so shy, he
worked up the courage to invite you out?
No, he would never have
had the guts to do such a thing.
He would barely lift his gaze
when I would get close to him.
I am the open and talkative one.
The entire church knows me.
And I liked him so much
that I didn't want to wait anymore.
And one Sunday morning I went
to him and I told him
to take me out for an ice cream
after the service.
Did you tell him? Or did you ask?
I went to him directly.
I was thinking that if go
straight to him
he won't refuse me,
and that's how it was.
He gave me a quick "Yes"
just to get out of the situation.
But after the service he really
took me out for an ice cream.
I understand you were
together for a while.
Can you say that it was
a serious relationship?
Yes, it was a serious
relationship for both of us.
Even though it
wasn't official yet.
We were thinking
about getting married.
People could say that we are
old-fashioned or too conservative
but marriage is very important to us.
Especially since we met here
in the church community.
This made us stronger in our faith.
I think that his plans were also
directly influenced by his work.
Did he tell you how things were at work?
He opened up to me a lot.
But he had a blockage related to his
work, to what was happening there.
Do you have any idea where
this blockage came from?
I think he doubted the morality of it.
I think that
he was ashamed that if I
found out what was happening there
I would change my opinion about him and
I wouldn't want to be with him anymore.
So, you didn't talk much about his work.
We talked very little.
One day I told him that I
would love him no matter what.
And that he should trust me and that
maybe it would be better for him to quit.
And how did he react?
I know for sure that Eremia
didn't go there just for the money.
He was such a good and kind
man, who believed that...
that his work would make the
world a better place.
If you allow me, I would like
to take things one at a time.
First: The work in that
department is extremely stressful.
As a company, being perfectly aware
of the stressful and sensitive
nature of this job,
we tried to create a friendly environment
in which the employees feel supported,
especially at times
when it risked becoming
a little too much for some of them.
And then, how do you explain
the waves of resignations?
There are employees
who only lasted one day.
Of course, there are some
limitations of the help we can offer.
Beyond this point, employees also
have to keep up with the mission.
Yes, but it seems that your help
is almost non-existent.
I mean, sure, you provide
some therapy hours
which are far from being enough
for the large number
of employees you have.
Yes, as you for sure know,
each company has a budget
with which they operate.
This is how things work for the
companies listed on the stock exchange.
For that segment,
that was the budget we
could afford at the time.
The following year, that
budget was increased by 50%.
Did you know this?
- No, I didn't. Congratulations!
- Thank you!
And yet, it wasn't enough.
It seems like you let the employees
go through this traumatic process
by themselves.
In addition, you set
performance standards
Productivity.
Or that. Which are
very hard to reach.
I still believe that you didn't understand
the nature of our activities.
Well, that's why I'm here
and we're talking.
- I'll try to explain it to you.
- Please!
At the moment, the Internet is
infested with harmful content.
Every day, every child sees, on average,
more than 20 minutes of videos
that should be taken down
according to the upload
rules of any platform.
Those videos stay on the
Internet on average for 4 hours.
In these 4 hours, they are copied
and reuploaded on several websites.
What our company manages to do
is extremely beneficial in all
spheres of the Internet.
We managed to reduce
the analysis time
of a video from 5 minutes
to only a few seconds.
Do you know what this means?
I'll tell you.
It means that in the
years to come,
our AI will reach the
performance of analyzing
hundreds of thousands of videos
and posts in a fraction of a second
and filter all this content.
However,
for all of this, we need people
to manually go through
huge libraries of content.
As you may already realize,
this is a titanic work.
Work that had to be supported by the
imposition of productivity quotas,
which is absolutely
normal in any company.
On the other hand, we are
extremely grateful to our employees
for all the support they gave us
and for their efforts
to create these successes.
Moreover, there are people in this company
who are perfectly aware of
the fruits of their labor
and who are even proud that
they managed to put their shoulder
to the creation
of a better world, after all.
Are you saying you have
employees who are excited
to watch r*pe and crime videos?
I think you are misinterpreting my words.
No, I want to understand.
And I want to tell
you that yes, indeed
there are people who really
believe in what we do
and who understood and
accepted that a sacrifice is needed
to be able to fulfill our mission.
And when this sacrifice
becomes a trauma...
- Do you have any other questions?
- Yes, I have a few more.
OK, send them via e-mail.
Thank you very much.
I will call someone from
the administration to help you
wrap the equipment
and to take you outside.
- Thank you. Good day!
- I understand. Thank you as well!
Do you think you have managed to provide
the necessary support to employees?
- No.
- Why?
Because the hours of therapy allocated
according to the contract were very few.
I think that they would have been
enough for 5 or 6 employees.
While there were about
50 in that department.
And who was keeping track
of the therapy hours?
You or those from the medical network?
Theoretically, the medical network had
to take care of the administrative part,
except that those from the company
wanted to be very involved in the process.
Thus they made the calendar.
What do you mean?
I mean the HR department was doing
the scheduling and informing us.
And I have the feeling that they
were interfering with it.
And they were deciding who should
come to the therapy in that month.
Is it normal?
Isn't that an intrusion
in the therapy process?
- Are they even allowed to...?
- Yes, it is. They shouldn't.
We opposed to such practices.
We complained to the medical network.
We threatened to stop
the collaboration. But...
- And did they stop?
- No.
They kept it going until an
extreme situation was reached.
In the sense that, at some
point, they asked us for reports
about what was discussed in the
therapy sessions with their employees.
- Wow!
- Yeah...
Of course, we invoked the
patient confidentiality.
We complained again
to the medical network
and we had the idea to complain to
the Board of Psychologists.
And what happened?
The action turned against us.
And by that I mean that
the medical network didn't want
to lose such an important client.
They stopped working with us
and the complaint from the
Board of psychologists was rejected
by a colleague who...
who two months later got the
contract with the medical network
and ended up working
with Futura AI himself.
Unbelievable!
Yes?
- Hello! Excuse us!
- Hello!
I'll bother you for a minute
I would like to talk about the fire
from the 23rd of May, from Futura AI.
I'm sorry, I finished the program.
Please, come back tomorrow.
As I told you,
I'm investigating Futura AI
and I would like to know if
the Territorial Labor Inspectorate
is aware of these facts.
Yes, of course.
Come back tomorrow and we will
discuss if you make an appointment.
It will only take 2 or 3 minutes.
Following the discussions
with some employees,
I discovered a series
of psychological abuses.
Yes, I read your e-mail.
In short, I analyzed the files
and I didn't find any investigation
related to a similar accusation.
In order to have an investigation,
the former or actual employees
should make a series of complaints.
I have at least 6 testimonies related
to possible abuses within the company.
Yes, I understand your approach,
but it is a journalistic approach,
not a legal one.
It cannot be the basis
for an investigation.
As I told you, for this
to have happened,
the former employees would
have had to call us directly
and we would have
came to investigate.
Or the actual employees,
if they wish to do so,
can file a complaint anytime
and we will come to investigate.
Otherwise, you
won't do anything?
There is no complaint,
so there cannot be an investigation.
Moreover, from the interactions
we had with this company,
there are no suspicions that
it is a dishonest employer.
They always pay their
employees' taxes on time, there
are no suspicions that
they had ill*gal employees,
they comply with all safety
and labor protection regulations.
Speaking of safety rules,
did you investigate the presence
of the employee in the server room
where the fire took place?
Yes, there was an
inspection after the fire.
Well, you said that you did
not make any inspection.
From your email, I understood
that you need information
related to an investigation regarding
certain psychological abuses.
The fire is a different
kind of incident.
You are right.
Let's go back to the fire.
What did you find out
after the inspection?
As I noted in the file I forwarded
to the Prosecutor's Office,
the employee had nothing to
do at that time, in that place.
The safety rules were
briefed two months ago.
We also have his signatures
on the instruction sheet.
We also checked the
internal order regulations.
It is written there that the employee
should inform his superiors
about his location in the
company's headquarters.
And all the security areas where he
had access were very clearly defined.
Eremia wrote a series of posts, almost
ten, in which he expressed his doubts
about the influence that
AI will have on our society.
It is clear that his ideological
approach is influenced by his religion.
And I want to give you an
example from a longer post.
"When we give the AI the
power to make decisions,
to decide what is
good and what is bad,
we renounce
assuming our own sins.
The AI tells us if we are wrong and we
no longer take blame for this process.
Although we believe that
we will build a better world,
"in fact, we destroy the one
we have without realizing it."
It is not just a general post about AI,
it is clearly a reference
to the AI developed by Futura AI,
which, as he believed, will decide for us
what is good and what is
bad and what constitutes a sin.
Something happened in
Eremia's mind, that's for sure.
He started to question what
he was doing at work
and when he became vocal
and especially public,
he got into a conflict with his employer.
The same source also told me that
Eremia was reprimanded for these posts
and what's more, he
was forced to delete them.
I found a few other things.
I want to ask you about
Eremia's social media posts.
Yes, the only thing is that
right now I am very busy,
and I don't think it's a discussion
that we could have on the phone.
Ah, does that mean we can meet?
I think it would be best if
I send you an e-mail
to let you know when we can schedule
a discussion or an interview
- or however you call it.
- Great. Thank you very much!
Well, at least I got a promise,
over the phone
that she will write me an e-mail
in which she will let me know
when she has the time to meet with us.
All good.
We've all read Asimov. He always
started from the Laws of Robotics,
which were designed so that
humankind would never be harmed
by the artificial entities that it built.
Of course, we should not look at
the problem in such a fatalistic way.
But, we are at the
beginning of a revolution
and if we don't build
everything on solid ground,
in a few years we will not
be able to control this process.
What do you mean,
more precisely?
Let's look, for example, at
what happened with social media.
The initial promise was that it
would bring us closer to each other.
But with no control of the process
and ethical thinking behind it,
we ended up with
the slip-ups of today.
Instead of having social connection,
we have division and conflict.
And what do you think is the biggest
problem in the development of AI?
The promise that AI is coming
with is that it will help humanity
progress to the next level of
cultural and spiritual evolution.
In reality, all these products
are owned by some corporations.
What is the main purpose of a corporation?
It is to make a profit and then
distribute it to shareholders
in the form of dividends.
This is where the first
level of conflict appears.
If a company were to face a
decision and had to choose
whether to give larger
dividends to its shareholders
or cut profits to build a safer AI.
- What would it choose?
- To cut profits.
You said this is the first
level. What is the next level?
The next level is the market competition.
All these companies develop
AIs that fight on the same segment.
Again, if you run such a company,
what do you choose to do?
Would you take, for example,
a decision
that would propel you
beyond your competition,
sacrificing the morality
and ethics necessary
for the development
of a healthy AI?
- Hello, yes?
- Hello! Good day!
- Natalia?
- Hello. Hm... yes!?
I'm Gabriel Vntoru,
an independent journalist.
I'm doing a story, well, an investigation
about Eremia ofan,
I don't know if you heard about him.
I know you are a member
of the "Holy Trinity" Community,
and I wanted to know
more about this community
and about how Eremia
integrated into it, among you.
- Can we talk?
- I see.
Unfortunately, you should know that I no
longer belong to that church community.
- I see.
- I don't want to talk about it either.
- And about...
- But about Eremia, did you know him?
Yes... regarding Eremia... Of course,
I heard about the incident but...
I don't want to comment on this.
I understand.
Yes, I will ask you to excuse me.
I can't talk anymore.
Are you aware that Eremia had a series
of posts in which he expressed
his dissatisfaction with the ethics
behind your AI program...
Yes.
and that he was forced to delete them?
Yes, we know everything
about the story of Eremia's posts.
However, to better
understand our position
we will take a step back.
Two years ago, Eremia went through
a process of religious reorientation.
We support the right of private life of
our employees and religious freedom.
However, following these changes,
Eremia became much more vocal
and started making his opinions public.
Are you referring to these posts?
Beyond these posts,
there were many moments
when in the office, in
front of other employees,
Eremia began to show
doubts about our activity.
You claim to be a progressive company.
Don't you support
freedom of expression?
Yes, we do. We support
freedom of expression
and the right to
religious freedom.
However, when you are an
employee of a stock listed company,
you have to be aware of their
public stance about certain topics.
Yes, but Eremia was no Elon Musk,
to afffect international markets
with a Twitter post.
He was just an employee.
Yes, but you have to understand
that a company that develops AI
is permanently under the scrutiny of
the press and the scientific community.
If an employee comes forward and says
that a mistake is being made here
that will have worldwide repercussions,
then by our front door The Guardian or
The New York Times or both will show up.
In addition, Eremia had signed
confidentiality agreements
that prohibited him from making
such conflicting opinions public.
So, you support all opinions
as long as they are aligned
with the company's policy?
No, that's not the point.
We really support all the
opinions of our employees
even when they are
critical of us, I assure you.
And then why was it necessary for Eremia
to be reprimanded by the HR department?
Reprimanded is a
very exaggerated term.
The process itself is very trite.
The HR team sends an e-mail
reminding you of the confidentiality
agreements that you signed
and you are asked to take
these clauses into account
when you make a public post.
We can call it "guidance for the
future" rather than a reprimand.
Yes, it sounds much nicer.
- Here's how I see it, okay?
- OK,
An employee who had conflicts with
the HR department and the top management
gets right in the middle of a fire.
What do you think?
Okay, I will tell you for
the thousandth time.
Behind this fire there were a
series of unfortunate events.
It may seem strange
considering Eremia's history
but he had nothing
to do with the fire.
Except the fact
that he died in it.
Should I understand
that we are finished?
No. I want to ask
you something else.
If everything is so clear,
why did I have to look for sources
to find out all this information?
Why didn't you come forth from
the start with all the information
and say how it happened?
Because if we went public and talked
about all these contradicting opinions
between Eremia and our company,
opinions based on this religious
reorientation process,
then we would have caused a scandal
that I don't know
how we could have put an end to.
That would have also
involved Eremia's church
which had nothing to
do with this whole story.
And you know for sure how the
Baptist communities are perceived here.
They are seen as sectarians, or members
of a cult, or loonatics, or whatever.
And beyond this, Eremia's
image would have been tarnished.
But, Eremia really was an
exemplary employee.
And probably the tabloid press
would have portrayed him
as a kind of religious fundamentalist
who started some kind of
crusade against technology.
And Eremia was not
this kind of person.
- So, you actually protected him.
- Yes.
Yes, our actions were based
on our feelings towards him.
And despite all those
contradicting opinions,
Eremia was never considered less important
after all these events.
And then, when all the
Facebook posts madness was over,
he continued to be one of
our most productive employees.
So, I don't understand why
all this fuss is being made
based on some simple Facebook posts.
Eremia was one of our parishioners.
A very good person.
Whose loss we will alway
feel in our hearts.
Do you remember how you met him?
He came to us.
It was...
at a time when he was very lost.
He couldn't find his way.
I think he felt very lonely.
But God sometimes does
things in ways you don't expect.
And one day he received a
flyer on the street from our church.
And he listened to his soul. And he
came to us, to the Sunday service.
And I think he felt that here
he could find a second home.
We are a very open community
and we welcome anyone.
Eremia had a certain distance.
The church was
clearly doing him good,
but there was a reluctance
in him to get closer to us.
We hoped that as time passed,
this barrier would disappear.
After all, you can't
change yourself overnight.
Of course.
Did you manage to got closer to him
to find out more about his life?
At one point,
about two years ago,
Eremia came to the Sunday service
and he seemed very upset.
It seemed that he was carrying the burden
of the whole world on his shoulders.
It hurt my soul to see him like this.
And after the service, I asked
him to come to my place
and to have lunch with my family.
Only after lunch, after a few hours,
he calmed down and told
me what was on his mind.
From what I understood, he
was working at an IT company.
And he had to watch videos with
violent content for several hours.
Exactly.
Eremia considered that
it would be a great sin if
he continued to work for them.
Did you manage to find out
more details about his work?
At the same time, he told me that
the employer treated them quite badly.
They had to work many unpaid hours
and many of his colleagues resigned
because of the stress
they were subjected to.
And did you give him any advice?
Yes, I told him to
leave immediately.
That was clearly
not a place to stay.
And again, I realized
what a good man he was.
One of the reasons why he didn't
leave was that he strongly believed
that his and his colleagues' work
would make the world a better place.
That was also his dilemma.
He felt that he was
committing sins every day,
but he believed that his
sins would be forgiven
because he was contributing to something
greater: To everyone's well-being.
And did he ever tell you in detail
how he suspected his
work would be used,
and what were the evil
purposes he feared?
There was another
problem here because
everything was more of a
hunch from his intuition.
He knew that if he went to
talk to someone about this...
- they would ask for evidence, proof.
- Yes.
And Eremia wasn't a detective.
He was only...
observing what
was happening and...
he had started to have the feeling that
something was about to happen.
- Is it on?
- Yes.
Besides the interviews
with the former employees,
I decided to investigate
another lead in parallel.
I've just received the
expertise reports
and the fire plans necessary
for the operating permits.
At first glance, nothing seems strange
or ill*gal. On the contrary,
they support the official version.
But maybe it's normal,
because I also got information
about the company that
issued these documents.
The company is called
Safety Experts SRL,
with the main shareholder
one Mrs. Maria Popa,
who is also the
company's administrator.
If that doesn't sound
familiar, it did for me...
and a few Facebook
searches later
Mrs. Maria Popa is none other
than the wife of Adrian Popa,
investigative officer
of the fire brigade,
the same officer who
made the fire report,
same report which was used by
the Prosecutor's Office.
Does the scheme
seem familiar to you?
I'm a state employee
so I'm not allowed to
work with private companies,
but my wife can.
So, we make a company
under the name of the wife
and we use the agency of the
husband to promise our clients
that they will get operating
permits much easier.
A conflict of interest,
by the book.
Let's go to mfinance. Ro
to see what we can find
about Safety Experts.
Let's see how experts they are.
I want to see what they did in 2022.
881,000 RON profit.
Wow!
7 employees.
Wow! Interesting!
I'm calling Maria Popa, the
administrator of Safety Experts.
Let's call her husband too,
Adrian Popa,
the firefighter officer.
If he also doesn't answer,
then it's obvious...
they are together at the movies.
The line is busy at the moment.
Please try again later.
So it is.
That's also some kind of answer.
I know that for a while,
for the first time in my life,
I ended up having insomnia.
And when I managed to fall asleep,
I often had all kinds of weird dreams,
nightmares, stuff.
And I linked them with my work.
I believed that was the reason
and I was very close to resigning.
But just when I was
ready to go do it,
they changed the content at work
and things relaxed a bit.
What we were watching until then
were extremely violent videos.
And suddenly they focused
on much lighter things.
They were still with
violence and stuff
but they were more
bearable than before.
I mean, now we were
watching stuff like
gendarmerie beating
people in the street,
the police sh**ting rubber
b*ll*ts into crowds...
Tolerable stuff, you know?
Protesters with signs...
And this change
had a positive effect for
the whole department.
People were more relaxed, they
stopped resigning one after another.
Even the managers were more ok.
Do you remember how Eremia
reacted to this change in content?
To be honest, I didn't
really understand Eremia.
I also can't say I was
very close to him, but...
the thing is, at the beginning, when
the work was bad, really hardcore,
he was coming to work, he didn't say
anything, he did his job,
he was hitting the target,
getting the bonus,
he was very disciplined and quiet.
The thing is, at some
point, he went through...
a conversion, or
something religious.
And from that point on,
he started to...
out of the blue, have all kinds
of speeches, you know?
He would come, you were having a
cigarette, minding your own business,
and he would say things about God,
religion, ethics, morality...
And what I found the
weirdest was that
when this change
of content came,
everyone, as I said,
was more relaxed and chill
but the only one who was
frustrated was Eremia.
He was always more
attentive than us
to what the company was doing,
to what was happening around us.
That's why he had problems with the HR,
because of the infamous posts on Facebook.
During the content change,
there were also other events
that we completely ignored,
but he always highlighted them.
Can you tell some
of those events?
For example, a series of
visits from some Asians.
We didn't really care, we were always
seeing foreigners around the company.
And they never told us who they
were or what they were doing.
We thought they were given
presentations about our AI.
But Eremia was saying that
there definitely is something
wrong with those Chinese guests.
We thought that was because
of his religion
and that's why he was behaving like that.
But when about four people
who spoke Mandarin were hired
to assist with those visits,
to help keep in touch with the Asians...
then Eremia became
even more apprehensive.
Did he have a theory?
He started telling us
that the AI we developed
was going to have
a different purpose.
He said it would be bought
by an authoritarian government
that would use it as a tool of
censorship, to control the population.
And you?
What did you think?
Well, the man kept
saying weird stuff for a while
and I didn't care too much about it.
There were some
colleagues who seemed
to listen to him more, to whisper
stuff along, but usually,
people didn't really care for it.
We were happy that the
content was much lighter
and there was no need
for extra stress.
I see.
But what about the
company's management?
I think it bothered them a bit, 'cause
I know there was talk at one point
that his speeches even became
a topic of discussion in
upper management meetings.
And yes, it makes sense
if you think about it.
If you are such a corporation,
you really don't need some dude
with a Messiah complex.
It seems that he was...
kind of alone in this process, right?
Eremia was not 100% coherent.
I mean, we couldn't
fully believe him either.
Even if his theory made some sense...
he kept mixing it with
the religion, with ethics...
you no longer understood
what he wanted to say
and what the
problem was after all.
So, we have the complete
change of content for moderation.
This, of course, meant
much less stress for the team.
Up at the offices, behind closed doors,
this change had more ramifications.
Most likely, those from Futura were
preparing the ground for the new client.
And Eremia's guess was that the next
client would be the Chinese government.
Those from Futura had been
playing the religion card.
They didn't even mention
this change of content.
Where is Twitter?
Where are those big companies that
were in dire need of their AI?
They say that Eremia was criticizing
them because he had discovered God
and because he had a problem
with technological evolution.
But if those from PR are hiding
the real reasons for his protests,
it means that his fear that the AI would
be sold to some dictators, was true.
Why wouldn't this AI be used
by an authoritarian government
to censor the videos
in which it was criticized,
or especially possible protests?
All these things add up
and build for us a picture
that moves further and further away
from the hypothesis of an accident.
I'll be frank. Do you know anything
about the new main client
that was going to
benefit from the AI?
I hope you didn't forget that I
have a confidentiality clause
and I can't discuss
the current policy of the company.
But honestly, I really
don't know anything.
Except for the fact that I
have some shares there,
I don't keep in touch with
those from the company.
I've heard some rumors
that the AI will be sold to an
authoritarian government from Asia.
If we are talking about rumors,
I have heard...
that the selling of Twitter to Elon Musk
hit them pretty hard.
The first thing that Musk
did when he took over
was to kick out all the
external contractors.
And after that, to terminate all the
big contracts with technology providers.
Anyway, Musk is not a big
fan of the idea of moderation.
So, he cut all ties with
the people from Futura.
And why didn't this
make the news?
In the pile of stupid things
Musk was doing every day,
do you think someone
had the time to look at
all the people who were
fired, or who lost a contract?
But this helped Futura.
Why?
They're keeping their
heads above water.
If the press doesn't know
about the closing of the contract,
the shares will remain
at a decent level.
The only thing they have
to do is to find another client
before they publish
the next financial results.
And do you think
they have a chance?
Very little chance.
Facebook is already
working on its own AI,
which will also solve
the moderation part.
Google is also doing some
experiments in this direction.
Well, there is still TikTok,
which is originally from...
- China.
- Exactly.
But, unfortunately, they don't
care what happens on their platform
as long as the algorithm
works and they make money.
Plus, in Asia it's pretty cheap to
hire people to do manual moderation.
So, the scenario of an authoritarian
government... Do you think it's plausible?
Theoretically, yes.
Without Twitter, they
practically have nothing.
And they seemed pretty desperate
and profit driven enough
to sell to anyone.
We tried not to reveal
too much to the press
about Eremia's behavior.
Because we knew
he would depicted as a
religious fundamentalist,
and his image would be tarnished.
Yes, I know about this
communication approach.
I can't say I agree with it,
but that's another problem.
I'm interested to know,
more specifically,
which were his interactions with
the HR department before the incident.
Eremia was, until the end,
an exemplary employee.
We have nothing
to criticize him for.
He believed in what
we are doing here.
And he dedicated many years to
help us fulfill the vision of Futura AI.
So, if he was an
exemplary employee,
why did he constantly
receive reprimands?
I don't want to ruin
Eremia's memory, but...
Yes, towards the end, collaborating
with him was very difficult.
What do you mean by difficult?
Can you elaborate?
His religious conversion was
the key factor in his change.
After that, Eremia became
very vocal about ethical issues
and how that was affecting
the AI we are building.
- And was he right?
- That was his opinion, that's all.
And yet, from the
interviews I did with
internal sources
from your company,
his complaints in the last
year were of a different nature.
I don't understand
what you mean.
You don't know?
Let me tell you.
During the last few months,
Eremia was convinced
that the AI developed by you
will be sold to an authoritarian
government from Asia.
I've never heard this story before.
Anyway, it's something I would
categorize as conspiracy theory.
There are colleagues who can confirm that
Eremia publicly supported this theory.
As I mentioned, Eremia was
going through a period
in which his opinions were strongly
influenced by his religious ideology.
And he became very vocal
and repeatedly violated the
confidentiality clauses in his contract.
We tried to understand him,
to respect his religious orientation,
the right to express his opinions,
but there comes a moment when
we are either in the same boat
or we are on different paths.
But Eremia didn't want this.
Anyway, he also had
his unique stubbornness.
He didn't want to understand
other points of view.
It seems to me that you
are still using his religion
to minimize, and lump
together, all his complaints.
Although the fear that AI
might fall into the hands of
some forces with less than noble
intentions was a valid one.
I haven't been informed of
anything like that regarding Eremia.
There are witnesses
who can attest
that the department you are leading
tried to stop him from speaking.
Maybe you should check if
these witnesses can be trusted.
They are your employees.
Okay, we're entering a territory where
your questions sound like accusations.
We have shared with you
all the materials you asked for.
I accepted to participate
in this interview,
but if you continue
with conspiracy theories,
I will ask you to talk
to the legal department.
- I still have some questions for you.
- Thank you. Have a good day!
Eremia was very suspicious.
From the very beginning he
didn't agree with this change.
And when we got the visits
from the Chinese,
he started to make connections.
Were there others who
believed in his theory?
Yes, of course.
There were many who, after
we got used to the new routine,
started to question why we
receive that kind of videos.
And what Eremia was saying,
his explanation, made sense.
But it was like that thing: Children
and fools always speak the truth.
Even though what the man was saying
made sense, many saw him as a madman.
Even though what the man was saying
made sense, many saw him as a madman.
And because he paraded
around with this theory,
the theory itself came to
be regarded as a crazy one.
Besides the visits and the change
of content, were there other signs?
There would be something else...
At the same time,
they changed the terminals
from which we viewed the content.
We were complaining
about them for some time,
that they got old,
but nothing was done.
And suddenly we received
new phones and tablets.
All from Chinese producers.
How did Eremia react to
the change of terminals?
He kept commenting all this time
that what was happening wasn't okay,
and the thing with the devices made
him even more skeptical and vocal.
But since he repeatedly criticized
the company's decisions
and he contested the official
narrative of the corporation,
he drew the fury of HR
and top management.
And what did they do?
They tried to isolate him, they
moved him around the office,
they gave him many days of work from
home, when this was not yet in fashion.
But Eremia was stubborn too.
Because he also wrote back
e-mails to the top management.
Until one day when
they called him in
a meeting with the
entire team from legal.
I think he stayed there
for about two hours.
When he left, he was pale.
And they forced him to
speak in front of everyone,
in front of the whole department
and to apologize for spreading
false theories about the company.
We received, from several
sources, a series of videos used
to feed the AI from
Futura AI in the last period.
Absolutely all of them
are real footage
from the protests in Asia
in the last three years,
including those in China,
against the COVID measures.
We also received a series
of print screens with the reports
that had to be completed by
the employees of the company.
Some kind of captcha,
where you had to choose:
"Please select all the
participants in the protest".
And another one that said: "Please select
all the police forces in the protest".
I believe more and more that
Eremia's intuition was correct.
The possibility that
the AI could be used to
supervise the citizens,
a kind of 1984, is very high.
And because Eremia was vocal,
he became a target.
Thank you very much for taking
the time to do this interview.
Let's start with your name
and your postion.
- Do I really have to?
- Yes, please.
Hi! My name is Radu Dumitru,
I'm the CEO and co-founder of Futura AI.
I'm glad to be here for this interview.
Seriously? Your colleagues from PR
and HR weren't too excited to talk to me.
Didn't they tell you anything?
Although we were not
on the same page,
you should know that we greatly appreciate
your effort for this investigation.
I think this is the role of the press,
to show us the mistakes that
we often ignore or are not aware of.
- Was Eremia a mistake?
- Not at all.
But I'm aware that this story
could have been managed better...
- both for us and for Eremia's sake.
- For sure.
I'd like to talk first about
the contract with Twitter.
Is it true that it
disappeared overnight?
I can't confirm or
deny this hypothesis.
From my point of view, Twitter is
now facing a total chaotic management.
They try to restore the
order on the Internet
by plugging and unplugging
the plug from the socket.
You realize that in such a context,
the situation of companies that
had large contracts with Twitter
is a bit uncertain.
Does this suggest that your company's
position is also somewhat uncertain?
Not at all. We have one of the best AIs
for content moderation on the market.
- And no client.
- No big client!
These are two different things.
Our AI product is already
used by several companies,
which, of course, are not at the
level of Twitter's notoriety.
I understand. From
the interviews that I've done,
it seems that
Eremia had a theory.
That your next client
was going to be an authoritarian
government from Asia.
Most likely the Chinese one,
which was going to use your AI
to supervise their citizens.
I know. I've heard this
theory before and
I can't categorize it other than
a nonsensical idea.
So how do you explain the fact
that Eremia and his colleagues
have seen hundreds of videos
in which protesters were
assaulted by the police?
Our AI is enormously complex.
We constantly have to test
some other capabilities,
to continuously develop it.
You are avoiding an answer...
We are talking about reports that your
employees were supposed to fill precisely,
with who are the protesters,
who are the police officers...
Who needs such information?
I don't know how to explain
to you right now
what functions we were trying
to develop at that stage.
It wasn't a phase!
There were entire months
during which Eremia and
his colleagues watched
all the videos of protests
in Asia from recent years.
Including the anti-lockdown
ones from China.
I understand your confusion, but I really
don't know why that was done, at the time.
I'm CEO, I have more of a strategic role.
I don't know what each employee,
does every day, at the task level.
So, you are denying this theory?
For confidentiality reasons, I cannot go
into details about our future customers.
We are in a very laborious process
from a legal point of view.
Although I would like to be able to
give you more information,
because it would immediately
dissolve your theory, I can't.
But in a year, two at most, we will
be able to share more information.
Good.
Well, let's leave it like that.
Let's move on to the next aspect.
The company that helped you
with the permits
for your headquarters,
is administered, absolutely
coincidentally, I am sure,
by the wife of the firefighter sent here
to investigate the causes of the fire.
- Really?
- Yes.
It's possible.
I wasn't aware of this information
and I realize that it may seem
like an incompatibility,
but I think it's pure coincidence.
Aren't there quite a lot of pure
coincidences in this whole situation?
I'll be honest. I don't know who took care
of the permits when we moved here.
I was never interested
in administrative problems.
I always channeled my
energy and attention
to the things that really
matter in this company.
I understand.
- Do you want to hear my theory?
- Of course, I'm really curious.
I'm sure.
Eremia was a model employee,
who truly believed in your
story from the beginning,
the one about better internet
and a world without evil.
A bit naive, but...
Precisely because he had this belief,
and not at all from his religious
convictions, how you make it seem...
when things went wrong,
he expressed his opinion.
And for this opinion he was
systematically reduced to silence
by the HR department
and by the top management.
He was ostracized, humiliated,
abused, and pushed to
the brink of the abyss.
And because no one helped
him and no one believed him,
he decided to seek
justice on his own.
So most likely, he stole a card
and caused the fire to destroy
the AI that was supposed to
end up in a totalitarian country
and be used against its people.
And in order to
cover up this story,
you used all your connections,
you drafted that expertise report
that tells the story in a light
that favors and exonerates you.
And within 24 hours,
the case was dismissed...
and problem called
Eremia was closed forever.
Quite literally.
It's an interesting theory indeed. One
that could make it in a pretty good movie.
But nothing more.
What you are telling me now is
nothing more than a conspiracy theory,
with the big evil corporation
trying to cover its tracks.
Unfortunately, in reality things
are much simpler
and more sad.
Eremia was an exceptional
employee.
Who at some point started
to have a more radical vision
after being strongly influenced
by his affiliation to a religious cult.
Did we have different
perspectives? Yes.
But is this a reason to reach the
gravity of the events you described?
Not at all.
You're talking about an abuse
of the colleagues from HR.
My colleagues respected
all the deontological norms.
Especially Eremia's affiliation
to the religious cult.
Those discussions were necessary for
the cohesion of the whole team.
And especially to bring
Eremia back on track.
By no means can you
categorize them as abuses.
And coming back for the
thousand time at...
that cursed fire...
It was just a chain of unfavorable events.
I know it's hard for you to...
admit this, but sometimes
such things happen.
Completely random and
with harmful consequences.
So, the issue with my investigation
is that I'm making up scenarios
and that I can't accept the
truth in front of me.
Sorry for calling them
scenarios, but...
Yes, you have a problem
in accepting the truth as it is.
You're not alone. I
also have this problem.
I relied on people like Eremia,
to be with me on this journey.
To see how our work would
eventually revolutionize the world.
But it wasn't meant to be like that.
He went on a different path
and reached a point where
his religion was speaking for him.
And it's hard for me to admit that
such a valuable person for our company
has come to disregard
what we were doing here.
Including his work, for which he
dedicated several years of his life.
But...
Theres nothing I can do.
I have to admit that
it was my failure.
It was my failure that I couldn't
keep Eremia in the team.
And in the end,
please understand that in this story
we lost more than an employee.
What?
The insurance company
has already reimbursed you
for all the damages.
And you must have backups.
Probably on Chinese terminals.
There aren't many documents
to attest to what happened.
- There are these reprimands...
- Mhm.
Realised by the Human
Resources Department,
but they are in accordance
with the current norms and laws.
As far as the company's
legality is concerned,
the company has an
irreproachable past.
All taxes are paid on time,
salaries are according to
employment contracts.
And unfortunately, only these things
are of interest to the Romanian state.
Yah. And the investigation
with the fire?
- The one related to Eremia's death?
- Yes.
The investigation
remains dismissed.
It could indeed be reopened,
but only by the Prosecutor's Office.
And the chances
of this happening are...
are, unfortunately, almost zero.
So, there is no chance that
this story will end up in court?
There is the option of a civil trial.
The family is suing the company.
You have these testimonies,
they can be the base of a file.
Yes, I've already spoken with them, and
they can't afford the costs, of course.
But would they have any
chance of succeeding?
We have to understand
that this is a corporation.
A corporation that can hire
an entire floor of lawyers,
who will find all the loopholes,
will drag things out,
and postpone the process
at every opportunity.
And then
the chances of finding a panel of judges
who will give a favorable verdict
are extremely slim
in such a case.
After speaking with all the parties
involved, including the authorities,
I believe my investigation
has reached a standstill.
The discovery that the AI will be
sold to an authoritarian government
doesn't interest anyone.
Not even the abuses that
take place in that company.
I have some testimonies
about which I am told
that they are only
circumstantial evidence.
So, my theory, which,
unfortunately, will only remain that,
is that Eremia was pushed
to the point where his morality
drove him to take
some foolish actions.
The truth will remain hidden
under a stack of social media posts,
pompous press releases,
and bureaucratic paperwork.
An investigation by Gabriel Vntoru
camera: Bogdan Mihalache
editing:
Gabriel Vntoru & Bogdan Mihalache
What are you doing? Are you
filming this historical moment?
- Do you want anything else?
- No, no.
Then I'll add the ending
credits and we're done.
Done.
It's public.
From now on, good luck.
2,453!
Good. Very good!
42,000 and some small change.
It's doing much better
than the previous one.
Let's check what's trending.
We are on the 8th
place in trending!
That's it! It's gone viral!
At least our efforts
weren't in vain.
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
What's this?
Come here for a moment.
Come here for a moment! Please!
Video unavailable.
What is this?
- I don't know, man.
- What is this?
Did we do something wrong?
"Sorry, this page is..."
I can't believe this!
Go to your computer
and check! Try incognito.
God forbid!
I got an e-mail.
"Dear Gabriel, we regret to
inform you that your account
has repeatedly violated the
uploading guidelines of our platf..."
For f*ck sake!
"After careful analysis, we have decided
to permanently close your account.
This decision is irreversible."
I can't believe it!
"Without any possibility..."
Does it work for you?
No, I can't find anything.
- Not even the account.
- Incredibile.
"We encourage you to..."
You encourage, my a*s...
"Thank you for the time
you spent on our platform."
Who has the power to
do something like this?
So, they closed down all our accounts.
sh*t!
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