Review of Mercy - Message is that AI can't be trusted




 I wanted to review this movie because it intersects crime, crime prevention, evidence, justice and how justice is blind or should be...or shouldn't  be.  
One of the most  chilling opening lines is " Mercy does not make mistakes". 
It allows for the average citizen to develop a hands off, everything's fine attitude toward criminal justice. 

The story takes place over a course of  a 90 minute trial where the protagonist Chris Raven, a police detective is accused of murdering his estranged wife.
The evidence presented is both current events over the last 12 hours before the murder and also historical evidence of video clips, text messages sent by his now deceased wife Nicole. 
The story unfolds with plots twists and turns and we come to find out that Chris is simply not a noble, likable character with a history of violent outbursts, drinking and relapse. 
In the end we find out, no surprise that Chris is innocent of the charge, the computer program Mercy is flawed not because of altered programming but because there wasn't complete information. 
What is interesting is all the documentation that is out there from cell phone records, texting, car tracking, cell phone tracking and home recordings  and it just takes advanced AI, the Mercy program to bring them all together.  

There is some drama and there is the explicit coverup by a police officer of the first Mercy case to make the homeless guy look guilty. 

There are several underlying themes of the show:  

- That instincts and gut feelings are good and valid for investigations.

- That police can't be trusted.

-That AI can't be trusted.

-That AI, when faced with 'stress' can glitch like a human can. 

Overall, it was a decent film if you like first person footage and surveillance cameras style videos. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My cat is demanding! What we can learn about stalking

Image
My cat is demanding! What we can learn about stalking behaviors. If you have cat, you'll recognize this behavior.  When the cat is hungry is will meow, nudge your legs and make a general nuisance of himself until you open that can.  You try to ignore the cat....you pet the cat... you tell it you'll feed it in a few minutes but nothing works.  The cat keeps trying... After the 10th time of coming to you, you finally give in and feed the cat. What has the cat learned ?  It takes 10 encounters for you to give in.  So the cat learns , the first 9 are going to be ignored and it's the 10th time is the sweet spot. Stalkers learn the same way. If they leave 9 messages and they are ignored and you respond on the 10th one, what have they learned? It takes 10 times to get a response out of you.  And it might not be just a text message. It might be 3 text messages, 3 notes on your car, 2 emails, 5 phone calls before you finally give in and say " Stop contacting me!" So...
Read more

Death Penalty - A slippery slope

Image
  The Polly Klaas story rocked the nation for highlighting the idea that no one is safe, even in your own home during a slumber party.   I've included the entire article here. In 2024, a judge turned down the request for his death penalty to be recalled. But imagine if it was a possibility ? So now, he can have the lack of parole reviewed. And then possibility of early release. Although not likely, there is the possibility. nbsp; The takeaway from this article is as Marc Klaas states "  "If my family can be subjected to the possible recall of capital sentence of a condemned murderer who, prior to murdering Polly, had multiple convictions for violence towards women and was diagnosed as a sexually sadistic psychopath, then any victim’s family who thought that justice was served in the courtroom is in for a shocking new reality," Marc said in his statement. "If Polly’s killer is somehow able to prevail, this is the tip of the iceberg." He is correct. A death s...
Read more