Original subtitles

Yesterday morning, in an office building,

Downloaded from YTS.MX

a fire broke out in a company's server room and killed an employee.

In less than 24 hours, the Prosecutor's Office dismissed the case.

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

DISMISSED An investigation by Gabriel Vânătoru

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 Ţofan, 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 bastards?

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 Ţofan, 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 Vânătoru, 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 Independenţei.

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 executed 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 shit?

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 Vânătoru, 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 Ţofan.

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: rapes, 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 bastards!

So, people sat there for hours and wrote reports about rapes,

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 rape 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 illegal 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 Vânătoru, an independent journalist.

I'm doing a story, well, an investigation about Eremia Ţofan,

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 illegal. 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 shooting rubber bullets 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 Vânătoru

camera: Bogdan Mihalache

editing: Gabriel Vânătoru & 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 fucks 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 ass...

"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.

Shit!