Jeremy's Dilemma

Author's Note: This story was submitted to NYC Midnight's 2024 Short Story Challenge. Now that the round is complete, it is being published for the first time exclusively on Vocal.

I had five minutes until the conference call was supposed to start. The management and legal team would attend, with the CEO calling in remotely from the home office. I scrolled through the data again, reliving the final moments of that night in the form of numbers, algorithms, status updates, and cold, calculated decision-making.

All of it was output from our proprietary AI, which enabled our entire line of level-5 autonomous vehicles. I’ve been obsessed with cars since I was kid, but my five-year-old self could never have guessed I would one day be the lead software engineer at one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world.

I took pride in my work at AutoSync, but looking through these logs made my stomach turn. I had barely managed to eat breakfast that morning. My nerves were shot, my heart was racing. It felt like adrenaline had replaced the blood in my veins.

I had spent the entire morning trying to find a flaw in the AI's logic. I could have rechecked the data and run through the sequence of events for the hundredth time, but instead, I walked to the conference room. It was filled with important people dressed in designer suits. They regarded me with stoic faces.

I locked eyes with my manager, Alex, as I sat in one of the leather chairs. I could feel his gaze burrowing into me. Alex leaned over the center of the table. He dialed a number on the device in the center. I heard the call ring once or twice, and then a voice came through the speaker.

"Can you hear me?" our CEO asked.

"Yes, sir. We have the rest of the leadership team here."

"Good. I don't need to tell anyone here the gravity of our situation. What happened was a tragedy, but this situation could easily spell the company's end."

"Of course, sir, we're all hoping for a swift resolution ahead of the hearing with the NHTSA next week."

"I'm glad to hear it. For those who aren't in the loop, can we go over the events of the crash one more time?"

A woman at the far end of the meeting room cleared her throat.

"This is Amy from legal. I would be happy to review the sequence of events from April 12th."

"Thank you, Amy. Please proceed."

The way she recounted the events was almost mechanical, much like the logs I had been staring at all morning. William Sinclair left his company party on April 12th at approximately 12:45 AM. He drove a model ST, our premium level-5 autonomous vehicle, capable of driving itself without any input from a human being.

It was cutting edge. I knew all the parts that went into the design. I had grown up around cars, and my career trajectory ran parallel with the industry’s evolution, so I knew the hardware and software better than anyone sitting in that conference room.

On any other day, I would have loved to go on for hours about how much I admired the interplay between automotive design and technology. The delicate ballet of sensors, LiDAR capabilities, advanced machine vision, and the software that tied it together like a digital brain.

"Mr. Sinclair's vehicle lost traction due to hydroplaning on Interstate 77. He took direct control of the car, which led to a collision with the secondary vehicle. It rolled over the guardrail and fell down the slope beside the highway. The driver, Harold Spencer, was declared dead at the scene.” Amy set down her papers and looked over to Alex, who briefly turned to me before facing the group.

"As we all know, the Model ST is capable of fully autonomous driving, but in this case, the driver chose to override the AutoSync AI."

"That's not entirely accurate," I said.

I could practically see Alex’s jaw clench.

"Who was that speaking just now?" the CEO asked.

"This is Jeremy Patterson, sir; I'm the lead software engineer on the AutoSync platform."

"I assume you've reviewed the entire data log from the night of the incident?"

"Yes, that is correct, sir."

"And what do you believe happened?"

"Well, Mr. Sinclair's blood alcohol was over the legal limit, so he had no reason to take control of the vehicle. In fact, at no point in the six months he owned the car did he ever drive it himself."

"And you know this how?"

"Everything is logged and stored in the cloud, sir. Our platform is designed with certain parameters to handle situations like this. According to the logs, the AI behaved precisely as intended," I said.

I felt Alex staring daggers at me, but I couldn't simply let this go.

"Are you saying our software chose to cause this accident deliberately?" the CEO asked.

"Yes, sir, that's correct."

"And just why in the hell would it do that?"

"Our AI algorithms are designed to limit casualties. In this case, the AutoSync platform communicated with all the vehicles on the road to analyze their occupants. At the time of the accident, the vehicle on the left was a 2022 four-door sedan with a single passenger. There were several others on the right, including a 2019 minivan with a mother and two children. From the AI’s perspective, the choice was simple.”

"Couldn't the accident have been avoided? Isn't that the whole point of the AI driving?"

"In this situation, sir, there was no possible way to avoid a collision; it was just a matter of which direction it would go. Our AI made the call."

The entire room fell into a suffocating silence. I heard the CEO sigh through the speaker on the phone.

"Come on, people, what am I paying you for? I need ideas, now!"

The people in the conference room were pale as ghosts. It was the first time anyone had heard the whole story. It looked like the realization had drained all the oxygen out of the room.

Alex broke the silence. "Mr. Sinclair is in a coma, and his current prognosis shows that he most likely won't come out of it. Given his blood alcohol levels, I think it's safe to say that this accident was a result of driver error and not the fault of our artificial intelligence platform.”

"Did you not hear what I just said?” I asked.

"Jeremy, was it?" the CEO asked.

"Yes, sir.”

"Jeremy, what do you think is going to happen when you testify before the NHTSA and you tell them that our software decided to kill a human being?"

"Well, the software was given an impossible choice. Some accidents simply can't be avoided. We had to program a response in this scenario; it’s not like the AI can think for itself. It’s limited to certain parameters."

"No one is going to care about that. They're going to hear that an AI killed a person, and they're going to shut us down. They will also investigate who programmed the algorithm to make that choice. Remind me, who was that again?"

My blood turned to ice in my veins.

"I was the lead programmer, sir."

"That's right. Do you see what I'm getting at, Jeremy?"

I could barely think. My hands were shaking; my mouth had gone dry. The room was starting to spin.

"Yes, sir, I understand." I was on autopilot from that point on. The conference call continued as the reality of the situation washed over me. When it was over, I left the room and walked to the bathroom nearby. Cold sweat ran down my face as I entered. As soon as the door swung shut behind me, I tore into one of the stalls and collapsed over an open toilet.

The meager breakfast I had forced down earlier came back with a vengeance. I wiped hot bile from my lips as I heard the bathroom door open again. I spun around, still hugging the porcelain bowl. Alex stood behind me, shaking his head.

"What the fuck was that?" he asked.

"I just told the truth," I replied.

"If that’s the story you tell to the NHTSA, we’re all going down!"

"You think I don’t know that? I’m not going to pin the blame on someone else."

"Sinclair’s a fucking vegetable, Jeremy! He's never going to wake up!" Alex took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Listen, you've had a long day. Why don't you get some rest, and we'll discuss your testimony tomorrow?"

"I can't just lie under oath,” I said, climbing back onto my feet and pushing past him.

I could barely look myself in the eye as I ran cool water over my hands and splashed it against my face to help with the nausea. I grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser to my right and dried off, locking eyes with Alex in the mirror as he stood behind me.

"You don't know what you're asking me to do, Alex."

I saw his expression turn to anger in the mirror.

"I'm asking you to think about someone besides yourself!”

I slammed my hands on the counter and turned around to face him.

"The AI did exactly what it was programmed to do! We taught it what to do in this situation. It was an impossible choice, but it's not the driver's fault!"

Alex shook his head. "You make it sound like the car was thinking for itself."

"That's because it was, based on the information we gave it. We all knew a day like this would come." Alex grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and pushed me against the counter.

“I’m not going to let you take us all down with you just because you decided to grow a conscience!” he shouted.

“Get your hands off of me.” Alex let go of me and stepped back, clenching his fists at his sides.

"You’re the head software engineer and the best automotive expert on our team! If you say it's his fault, they'll believe you." Alex turned and walked back to the bathroom door. He pulled it open and paused with his back facing me.

"Make the right choice,” he said.

After watching him leave, I returned to my desk and sat down. I stared blankly at the screen as a new email hit my inbox. The sender was Trish Merill, a journalist at one of the biggest publications in the city. The accident had happened just a few days ago, but she was one of many reporters who had reached out asking for a comment that she could use in her story.

Later that evening, I sat at home with a glass of whiskey in one hand and my phone in the other. In all my years in the industry, I never thought I would be faced with a choice like this.

They would never let me testify and tell the truth, leaving me with only one choice—one avenue to get the truth out there. I helped write the software, fed the AI algorithm terabytes of data, and showed it right and wrong. I taught the system everything it knows.

Does that make me responsible? Do I have blood on my hands?

I opened the email from earlier and dialed the ten-digit number into my phone. I took a swig of the whiskey as it rang.

"This is Trish Merill, whom I am speaking with?"

"This is Jeremy Patterson from AutoSync."

"Nice to hear from you, Jeremy. Did you have a comment you wanted to share on the recent accident involving one of your company's vehicles?"

I finished the whiskey in my glass with a single gulp.

"You may want to sit down for this one. I'm going to tell you everything." I paused while she shuffled some papers and tapped away at her keyboard.

“Mr. Patterson, according to your company's most recent statement, you’re meant to testify to the NHTSA next week. Is that correct?”

I poured more whiskey into the glass and took a long sip.

“That’s correct, but my testimony would be the story AutoSync wants me to tell, not the entire truth. After today, I’m not sure I’ll make it to next week. That’s why I called you tonight. ”

“Are you implying that the company has threatened or coerced you into giving a false testimony?”

I finished the second drink and let the liquor burn on the back of my throat for a moment as I felt my heart pounding in my chest.

“Do you want the story or not?”

She paused. “Go ahead whenever you’re ready.”

"Let me start by asking you a question. If you knew you were going to get into an accident that would result in at least one death, would you choose to sacrifice the life of one person or the lives of multiple people?” I asked.

“I would choose the option that resulted in fewer deaths,” Trish replied.

“Right, of course you would. Okay, well, it all started on the night of April 12th.”