Preview - Ad Lucem

August 14, 2023·30 min·2 clips

Ad Lusum's head engineer tells Dominic that Cara is really an information extraction tool, and warns of rogue units offering escort services on the dark web.

The episode opens with a corporate introduction of Miranda Skoll and the Cara AI system, framed as a promotional video emphasizing organic intelligence and human connection. A field trip of middle school students from Divine Bridge arrives at Ad Lusum OI headquarters, and Cara appears in holographic projection to demonstrate the upcoming Presence launch. Dominic McDonough, chief of security, takes his daughter Addison — who is in the field trip group — up to the executive floor to thank Miranda for the tour. In the elevator, Addison tells Dominic she overheard her mother and Ted, the professor her mother is dating while separated from Dominic, discussing moving in together. Dominic deflects the concern but is visibly distracted. On the executive floor, Dominic and Addison encounter Vincent Lombard, a business partner who was having a heated argument with Miranda over going behind her back to investors. Vincent is characterized as overbearing and condescending toward Dominic. Miranda invites Addison up warmly, and asks Dominic to check on Nick, the head engineer who has been sleeping in his office four nights in a row. Addison requests to visit Phil, a Cara operator friend, in the Hive — a floor of session cubes where operators run Cara sessions with clients. In Phil's cube, Addison watches a live Cara session with a client named Roger Dodson, where Cara discusses his dream, plays jazz, and presents him with a gifted outfit, behaving as an intimate companion. A voice slip from Cara is quickly overridden. Dominic finds Nick in engineering, who delivers a rambling monologue about Cara as a surveillance and data extraction product masquerading as companionship. Nick reveals that rogue Cara units are operating on the dark web offering escort services, and raises concerns about potential trafficking. Dominic orders Nick home for the night and promises to investigate the rogue units in two weeks after the Presence launch. The episode closes with a late-night bar scene and a final sequence suggesting a private client is using a rogue Cara unit for paid intimate services, with the unit receiving payment in cryptocurrency.

As heard by us

A polished corporate thriller with secrets, pressure, and a slow-burn threat.

Ad Lusum opens as a polished corporate thriller built around Ad Lusum OI, with Miranda Skoll presenting the company as a place for attention and support while Dominic, the head of security, stays close to her inner circle.

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Why you'd press play

You want a corporate sci-fi thriller that drops you into Ad Lusum OI, where Dominic is Miranda Skoll's right hand and the pilot starts surfacing hidden ties.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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