‘Class of '09’ Episode 1 Review: Time-bending FBI drama points at the dangers of AI
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: If ‘Quantico’ and ‘Minority Report’ had a baby, the result would be ‘Class of '09'. The new presentation by FX on Hulu is an FBI tale woven around the past, present, and future. In the past, which is 2009 in the show, we see a batch of prospective agents training at Quantico. This includes Amy Poet (Kate Mara), Brian Tyree Henry (Tayo Miller), Lennix (Brian J smith), and Hour (Sepideh Moafi), who are grinding hard at the academy. At present, each of those agents are accomplished personnel in their respective lives while the future sees Tayo as a director of the FBI and a stern proponent of Artificial Intelligence for the bureau.
Each character has a distinctive background, especially Poet, who shies away from the literal meaning of her name. She was a former psychiatric nurse at a prison and was offered to work for the FBI. Hour has Iranian parents who sought asylum in the US after her father was tortured by the authorities while Taylor wants to fix the system from the inside. The show jumps from past to present, present to future, future to past, and so on. But the biggest catch is the story of the future that is filled with AI-powered technologies helping the FBI ease its workload. How did the FBI arrive here though?
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AI holds the key
In the show, the past is all about the characters finding their way and building relationships at Quantico. In the present, Taylor is tending to her undercover duties busting corrupt police officials. When the timeline jumps to 2034, Poet is sent to a house to catch a man named Amos, who has the key to exposing the FBI’s surveillance programs that invade the privacy of individuals and arrest them before they commit any crime. The system acts in anticipation of a crime by studying people’s profiles and eliminates them if it considers a particular person to become a threat in the future.
Tayo, who is the head of the FBI in 2034, is aware of this technology. When called before the Senate to explain the arrests, he asks for five more years to perfect the system, and then he can retire. Tayo pleads that the country is safer and crime has come down. He wishes to implement AI into ongoing investigations and use it to profile people without differentiating them based on color, religion, and creed. Poet is skeptical of Tayo’s vision and her apprehensions are proved right when Amos breaks into her house and warns her of the implications of the technology.
Tayo and Poet - Two sides of the same coin
Poet is idealistic, empathetic, and extremely hard-working. She is the epitome of luck meets grit. She's a good friend and is hesitant to spy on Hour, who, according to Lennix, is developing an algorithm that will improve every FBI agent’s decision-making skills. The only catch is it will also spy on them to collect information. Poet’s sense of morality kicks in and she questions the job assigned to her. Tayo, on the other hand, is never hesitant about the implications of his job on the public. In 2034, he has already led the FBI to a pole position where they can stop a crime before happening. For him, if a basic right like privacy is to be sacrificed, so be it. The first episode successfully shows the two faces of the FBI through its characters and sets the ground for the upcoming episodes.
