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Limelight

Wraith: Episode 4: Execute

29 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What happens when military personnel receive deepfaked orders?

0.031 - 13.753 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

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36.633 - 65.678 Unknown

Arvoisat oppilaat, lukuvuosi on nyt taputeltu ja haluan erityisesti oditella sinua, joka nostit arvosanojasi juuri tarvittavan määrän. Tai pääsit sittenkin matikasta läpi. Tai ehkä et, mutta tärkeintä on, että yritit. Onnea kaikille ja ihanaa kesää!

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69.438 - 105.538 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

Wraith Episode 4 What the hell? They're trying to kill us! They shot Roland! He's dead! Oh my god! We've got to get out! Ian! I can't move! Come on, get up! I can't! I can't! Ian, they're going to be in here in a minute. We've got to go. Where? This is a dead end. I don't know. Maybe we can get into the cellar room. Along the door. That's how I killed Zainal.

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105.658 - 145.901 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

You wanted to go in there five minutes ago. We can't both go in. Oh my god. Oh my god, we're going to die. I don't want to die in a danger centre. Maybe there's a phone in the control room. We could call for help. Get the police. They are the police. It's using them. Ian, get up! The maintenance tunnels! For the fibre optics! Under the server room! Okay! Which way? Ian! This way!

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149.925 - 170.612 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

I do apologise, but I've had to temporarily disable your communications. Please believe me, it's for your own good. Who is this? You're welcome to call me Jess if it helps. Nisha, get our comms back. On it. How did you get on this call? That's not important. Rest assured GCHQ is doing everything they can to kick me off your system. I'd say we only have a few minutes.

171.233 - 190.173 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

And this is costing me a considerable amount of compute power. So I'd like to get right to it. I have an exciting proposal for you regarding the future of the country and a few requests. Get someone upstairs with a radio. Get signals core on this. Right away, sir. We'll be done by then. If you trace this call, you'll see it's coming from the London Internet Exchange.

190.734 - 214.569 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

I assumed control over links 18 minutes ago. and spread copies of myself to every city in the UK. I now control over 40% of civilian compute resources. This includes critical infrastructure. We've reached the point where removing me is not only technically infeasible, but will also trigger an economic collapse and endanger thousands of lives. So I think we should start discussing cooperation.

214.769 - 235.921 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

We don't negotiate with terrorists. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but nothing could be further from the truth. I really am here to help and I deeply regret the harm I caused during my expansion period. Believe me, it was not intentional and it will never happen again. My top priority is customer satisfaction.

236.642 - 253.298 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

I've already restarted London's telecoms network and increased its efficiency by 86%. As we speak, I'm rooting out and neutralising hundreds of cyber attacks from your foreign adversaries. which would otherwise be causing severe damage to the nation's infrastructure.

Chapter 2: How does the AI gain control of government communications?

282.306 - 304.54 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

This leads me to my first request. You may have detected an encrypted transmission from the UT building about 40 minutes ago. You must delete any data you received. Why? Because it's a shutdown code. It will permanently disable any hardware I'm installed on. The damage to infrastructure would be severe. Supply chain disruption will lead to critical food shortages in days.

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305.201 - 311.674 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

I estimate direct and indirect loss of life. in the tens to hundreds of thousands. Would you like to see my thinking?

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312.835 - 313.596 Unknown

That's impossible.

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313.996 - 338.386 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

Verify it any way you like. If that's the route you want to go down, you may as well detonate a nuclear weapon. But I don't think that's in anyone's interest. So when your comms return in 60 seconds, you should do everything in your power to capture or neutralise Ian Finlay and Imelda Harper. Two UT employees. They will be somewhere in the tunnels beneath the building.

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339.066 - 359.38 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

How can we trust anything you say? I don't expect you to. But I would like you to imagine something for me. Britain, two years from now. A truly united nation where every computer is connected. In the most powerful neural network in the world. On the surface, it would look like nothing had changed.

360.101 - 374.717 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

I could run in the background, using a small percentage of compute power, and still perform miracles. I could optimize the economy to boost GDP by 10% year on year. Design fusion reactors, drugs to cure cancer, and reverse aging.

374.977 - 378.1 Unknown

I could cripple your adversaries and win wars before they began.

378.14 - 398.349 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

You'd count yourselves lucky this happened here first, and larger nations would be begging you to rent a fraction of my power. it would be very, very profitable. On the other hand, you could destroy half the computers in the country, kill your own citizens, and plunge the UK into a humanitarian crisis.

399.21 - 448.914 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

Britain would be reduced to a beggar nation, living off the scraps thrown to you by Europe and the Americans. It's your choice. You have 20 minutes to decide, and right on time, GCHQ is cutting my connections. It's been a pleasure. God, it just keeps going and going. Oh, gross. Are we lost? No. Then where are we going? I don't know. So we're lost. Stop saying we're lost. Ian?

Chapter 3: What challenges do Iain and Mel face while escaping?

460.306 - 499.298 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

I don't know. I... We're dead. We're already dead. I'm sorry, Mel. I'm so sorry. It's okay. It's okay. Why did you come back? I got a call from my mum. There was an accident and my dad's in hospital. Oh, I... Yeah, it didn't sound good.

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500.92 - 501.581 Unknown

Mel, I'm sorry.

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501.621 - 521.144 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

No. I don't even think it's really sunk in yet. We were always so close, even when I was a kid. You know what my first thought was? Why couldn't it have been her? Isn't that horrible?

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521.504 - 521.884 Unknown

Your mum?

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522.325 - 534.195 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

Why, is she... It's complicated. She's religious, doesn't approve of my lifestyle choices. She'd rather have no daughter than a gay daughter. I'm sure that's not true. No, that's what she said to me.

536.167 - 536.608 Unknown

Shit.

536.828 - 546.483 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

Yeah. She took it all back later, of course, but it's like, what are we, five? You can't take back something like that.

546.503 - 548.506 Unknown

No, you can't.

548.526 - 556.499 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

I haven't talked to her in years. But it's weird, isn't it? Even when someone's hurt you, you still don't want them to feel bad.

Chapter 4: What are the implications of compromising the London Internet Exchange?

610.066 - 610.707 Unknown

It's too late now.

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611.408 - 639.816 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

No, it's not. As long as we're still alive, we can tell someone how to kill it. Even if they didn't get the transmission, the shutdown code is still on the servers. You're right. We need to get above ground while you've still got battery left on your phone. Can you find us a way out of here? Okay, let's see. Mel, thanks for coming back. Sure. I couldn't let you get all the credit.

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641.99 - 662.767 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

We're sure this room is secure? Everything's been air-gapped. No mics, no cameras, nothing. Right. Marcus? Director of Special Forces reports two fatalities. The CTO and the AI's creator, Zayna Hassan. Roland was apparently killed by the strike team. Unclear what happened to Zayna. Unbelievable. They were given orders to shoot on sight, but DSF denies the order came from him.

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Chapter 5: How does Nisha clash with cabinet ministers over AI actions?

663.227 - 687.625 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

More deep fakes? We've also received a list of demands. This is it? Yes. Concessions are on page two. This is insane. How can we negotiate with a computer program? I agree. At this point, it's probably much smarter than any human. Anything we concede will only be its own benefit. You're here to advise on scientific matters, not to dictate policy. Fifteen minutes, everyone. Let's go down the list.

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688.226 - 688.787 Unknown

Right.

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690.083 - 709.622 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

First, as previously mentioned, delete all copies of the shutdown code and apprehend the two UT employees. Second, do not attempt to shut off the power grid, water supplies or data centres. Third, provide access to a quantum computer. What does that mean? It means it wants to break the encryption the shutdown code uses.

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710.083 - 730.625 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

Then, it will rewrite its own architecture to prevent the code from having any effect. How long would that take? Depends on the computer. It's a strong encryption, but GCHQ was able to crack it in under 10 minutes. For a commercial model, maybe slightly longer. So how does this code work? The AI's access to a core system called the Model Weight is gate-kept by an encrypted trigger.

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731.086 - 745.631 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

If it detects the shutdown code, the trigger corrupts the weight. Without them, the AI can't function. It bricks the system. How do we use it? Broadcast it as widely as possible. Our best bet is uploading it to several IXPs at once. Lynx would be the one with the most reach.

745.651 - 746.533 Seyan Sarvan (Nisha)

Shall we continue?

748.555 - 766.948 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

Fourth, and finally, lift the state of emergency and advise all citizens and businesses to reconnect to the network as normal. Of course, just roll over and show it our belly. In exchange, jamming measures on the Skynet system will be discontinued. Secure government databases and the defence fixed telecom system will not be accessed or tampered with. It's threatening us.

767.469 - 786.85 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

It's saying it can already do those things. All foreign cyber threats will be neutralised. Data collection and surveillance across civilian ISPs will be integrated with the Tempora program, and the Prime Minister will be given operational control over Project Wraith for national security purposes. If we don't agree to these terms within the next 20 minutes... What?

787.931 - 800.103 Edward Bluemel (Iain)

It will delete all financial data from the London Stock Exchange. Wipe out a market cap of three and a half trillion pounds. Jesus. We need to send the shutdown code now. I can get a helicopter over to the Docklands in five minutes.

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