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'Artificial: Remote Intelligence' Episode 4: What is Lilith's true purpose, is it something dangerous?

Lilith's predecessor Sophie had to be shut down because she developed a homicidal turn. Perhaps that's the key to Lilith's mystery

Spoilers for 'Artificial: Remote Intelligence' Episode 4 

The acclaimed interactive Twitch series 'Artificial' has always had its fair share of secrets and drama. But in its third season 'Artificial: Remote Intelligence', the show has gotten a lot more mysterious than ever before.

Episode 4 amped up the mystery with the revelation that the new Artificial Intelligence Lilith (Tiffany Chu) does not share her predecessor's prime directive to become more human. This understandably freaks out Dr Matt Lin (Tohoru Masamune), who created the original experiment for that express purpose and he eventually asks Lilith's "owner" Sebastian (Stephen A Chang) what Lilith's actual directives are.

Sebastian doesn't reveal the truth and he just says that telling Matt what the directives are would hamper the outcomes of the experiment. That does seem like a genuine concern but there are some sinister possibilities that this raises. Matt's AI daughter Sophie (also Tiffany Chu) had to be shut down because she developed a homicidal turn. Perhaps that's the key to the whole thing.

Unlike Matt's original project, Sebastian has brought on a psychologist, Dr Ruby Thatcher (Jennifer Field) and a cognitive specialist Elle (Christy St John). This suggests that Lilith might be more of a psychological experiment than an educational experience. Perhaps what Sebastian is trying to do is to use Lilith to discover what causes homicidal and psychotic tendencies in humans. If a blank slate AI placed in a controlled environment can become homicidal, then perhaps that data can be used to discover the real reasons behind aggressive, antisocial behavior in human beings.

Whether that's ethical or not is debatable. On the one hand, one might argue that since Lilith isn't an actual living being, she can be experimented on without reservations. However, that's dependent on a particularly close-minded view of what constitutes a living being. For all intents and purposes, Lilith does appear to be alive and one could say that she deserves all the same rights a regular human would receive.

Ultimately, we'll just have to wait and find out what Lilith's true purpose really is. Though there's every chance that it may be something deeply disturbing.

'Artificial: Remote Intelligence' streams live on Twitch, Thursdays at 6 pm ET / 9 pm PT.