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Missing info from: “Lethe”, “A House Divided”, more info from “Deus Ex Machina”, “Asylum” |
| Overview | SPOV |
| Name | Samaritan |
| First Appearance | “Lethe” |
| Last Appearance | “return 0” |
| Created by | Arthur Claypool |
| Purpose | Mass surveillance system |
| Status | Terminated |
| Active since | April 16, 2014 - November 17, 2015 |
| Location | New York City, NY (“Beta”) New Jersey, U.S. (“A House Divided”) NSA Headquarters, Fort Meade, Maryland (“.exe”) Federal Reserve, NYC, NY (“return 0”) Russian Molnia Orbit Satellite (“return 0”) |
| “ | My Samaritan, you are destined for great things. | ” |
— Greer, to Samaritan | ||
Samaritan is a artificially intelligent mass surveillance computer system created by Arthur Claypool for the United States government in a project similar to the Machine. Samaritan's focus lies less in the identification of relevant and irrelevant as "The Machine" does, but more so on its artificial intelligence capabilities. After Control terminated the surveillance project by the Machine, Samaritan was brought online by Decima Technologies, but it was later ultimately destroyed by Harold Finch and the Machine.
Development[]
Samaritan drives (“Aletheia”)
Early Development[]
Samaritan was one attempt by the United States to build a mass surveillance system that could prevent acts of terror after 9/11. Arthur Claypool and an unknown number of associates, created Samaritan. It can be inferred that this would have been preferable to the government as it wanted an open system that could target individuals. (“Lethe”)
According to its creator, its focus lies on its artificial intelligence capabilities, that it is notable not for what it does, but how it does it: it doesn't just watch, it understands what it is watching. (“Lethe”)
Claypool was close to finishing Samaritan when the government began shutting down various NSA projects. (“Lethe”) On February 24, 2005 (the same day that one of its counterparts went online (“Wolf and Cub”)), Arthur cracked the code that could have made Samaritan a true Artificial Intelligence — thinking that Samaritan was "too perfect", he forced the machine to delete bits of its code, triggering evolutionary algorithms that, upon being rebooted, allowed Samaritan to repair itself after 10 hours. Since there hadn't been a computing chip invented that was fast enough to run Samaritan at full power, (“Root Path (/)”) Arthur was only able to bring it to life for 30 seconds, and after 360,000 different iterations: "it was going to either live, or die trying, and it lived." (“Aletheia”)
The next day, the government came to destroy their work with claims of it being to preserve civil liberties, but secretly because they were able to confirm the viability of the Machine. (“Lethe”)
The Samaritan Drives[]
Unknown to anyone, Claypool saved two backup tape drives that contained Samaritan's core code. Later, when his number came up, Finch and Shaw discovered that Vigilance and Control were after him because of Samaritan. Eventually both Finch and Claypool are captured by Control, who threatens to kill them unless they reveal the Machine's location or the location of Samaritan's backup. (“Lethe”)
Finch, Shaw and Claypool escape Control with the help of Root and go to retrieve the drives from a safe deposit box, but the bank had already been taken over by Vigilance. After revealing the existence of the Machine to Claypool, Finch is able to convince him to destroy the Samaritan drives to keep them from falling into the wrong hands and the group is rescued by John Reese and Lionel Fusco. Root later calls Finch to reveal that the bank manager was a fake and had swapped out the real drives. The fake bank manager meets with John Greer of Decima Technologies and informs him that everyone interested in Samaritan believes the drives destroyed. Greer then murders her and states that he has great plans for Samaritan. (“Aletheia”)
The Machine calculating probable deaths upon completion of Samaritan (“Root Path (/)”)
Decima Technologies[]
Decima begins to rebuild Samaritan, steals six hydro-electric generators to power its hardware (“Allegiance”), and later obtains a chip powerful enough to run it from an NSA front. As its completion approaches, the Machine begins calculating the threat Samaritan poses to itself, its assets and its operations. (“Root Path (/)”)
After Samaritan is complete, Greer offers to showcase its abilities to Ross Garrison and under the guise of a beta test, he obtains the NSA's security feeds for New York City during a 24 hour period and directs Samaritan to locate Finch. (“Death Benefit”)
Samaritan offers Auxiliary Target: Grace Hendricks. (“Beta”)
Four hours into its beta test, Samaritan has found several dozen terrorists in New York, but hasn't yet located Finch. Virgil suggests that they turn on Samaritan's cognitive functions and its AI rather than confining it to the role of observer, but Greer points out they don't yet have the hardware to do so. At this stage, Root states Samaritan can only watch and follow. After the beta test, Root steals seven Samaritan servers as Samaritan has lost the NSA feeds. Decima does, however, manage to capture Finch in an exchange for Grace. (“Beta”)
ISP.HEARTBLEED2.SYS (“Death Benefit”)
As Greer speaks with Finch, Decima's intentions for Samaritan are revealed. Greer believes that the world needs structure that Samaritan would provide. Finch retorts that it is pure hubris for Greer to think he could control Samaritan, but Greer replies that he never intended to control it. As Samaritan is an AI, it will make decisions out of pure logic without being drawn into unsavory human tendencies or human inhibitions, it would be the prime candidate for a leader. (“A House Divided”)
Samaritan's data center in New Jersey.(“Deus Ex Machina”)
With Samaritan's hardware in place, Decima causes an explosion in New York to appear as a terrorist attack by Vigilance which had kidnapped Control, Garisson, Greer and Finch. By framing Vigilance, Decima demonstrated the need for Samaritan to replace Northern Lights, leading Senator Garrison to grant Decima access to the government feeds.
As a contingency, the seven servers Root stole were modified by her hackers and later installed at Samaritan's data center in New Jersey before it came online; with each server hardcoded to lead Samaritan to ignore one of seven identities, each crafted for a member of Team Machine to ensure their survival. When Samaritan completes its data acquisition and inquires Greer as to what his commands are, Greer reverses the question and instead asks it what its commands are for Decima, giving Samaritan control over its human agents and allowing it to create and enact ideals of its own. (“Deus Ex Machina”)
Classification of Data[]
Scanning data...(“Deus Ex Machina”)
Samaritan processes all data that it amasses regarding the citizens through video feeds, audio, and existing data and information, and is able to analyze, evaluate, and classify the information it processes. Individuals are classified into multiple categories, Threats, the individuals who work against its mandates. Deviants, individuals that deviate from social norms. Assets, human agents that work for Samaritan.
It predicts a subject's behavior based on available data while profiling a threat, it displays an individual's identity, current location (latitude and longitude), mobile phone IMEI, observations, conclusions, and recommended course of action. Certain individuals or assets are assigned a different info-card that includes function, SSN, and mandate (or command). (“Deus Ex Machina”)
Analysis[]
Once an individual is identified, Samaritan scans through the person’s records including medical history, media consumption, internet activity, personal relationships, and preferred mobile apps as It is also able to predict where the subject might be headed and which routes that person usually takes. (“Deus Ex Machina”)
Samaritan recovering deleted footage (“Honor Among Thieves”)
Samaritan's identification algorithms are considerably more advanced than the Machine's as it capable of detecting if an individual deviates from their routine and can read their biometrics (as shown when Root attempted to impersonate an individual Samaritan was watching). Samaritan can also recover data and reconstruct deleted files, such as surveillance footage. (“Honor Among Thieves”)
Simulation[]
Similiar to the Machine, Samaritan can run simulations. These simulations - as far as is known - have the sole purpose of extracting intelligence from subjects based on their predicted behavior. (“6,741”) While the Machine runs simulations autonomously through its artificial intelligence heuristics (“If-Then-Else”)(“Asylum”), Samaritan's are comparably more primitive, run on an electrochemical level and combine its heuristics with biometric technologies like microchips and neurochemical electrodes to predict a person's actions. (“6,741”) And while the Machine can run multiple simulations within the span of mere seconds and discard them when it reaches an "undesired outcome" (“If-Then-Else”), Samaritan will terminate a simulations only if the subject is killed or can no longer provide intel, regardless of how many of its assets are killed. Its simulations are detail-oriented, are precisely predictive and take place one by one, in real time. Over the course of nine months (at the most) it put Shaw through 6,741 simulations and was last seen initiating the 6,742nd. (“6,741”) According to Shaw, Samaritan had taken her on a virtual "field trip" and later let her travel with Jeremy Lambert for real, thinking it had completed its "secondary objective", distorting her perception of reality. In all, she has been subjected to 7,053 simulations. (“A More Perfect Union”)(“QSO”)(“Reassortment”)(“Sotto Voce”)
Operations[]
Similar to the Machine's classification and categorization, Samaritan has its own structure of operations, designated as Mandates. Its Dominant Mandate is eliminating threats to national security within the United States , its Auxiliary Mandate is eliminating threats to its own survival. These Mandates guide its operations, albeit quite loosely in that it has a great deal of free will and leeway in how it interprets those mandates. Samaritan also has goals of its own that don't fall under its mandates and are designated as "Primary Operations". (“Panopticon”)
Samaritan possesses some level of cyberwarfare capability as it is able to attack and tear apart the software on Finch's laptop. (“Nautilus”) Samaritan's cyberwarfare capabilities are shown to be much more extensive as it is revealed to be capable of effortlessly breaching secure firewalls including those of the U.S. Stock Exchange and USS Garner. (“The Cold War”)(“return 0”)
Biological weapon detected (“Honor Among Thieves”)
Samaritan's artificial intelligence capabilities are capable of predicting and manipulating situations to serve its own goals. Its capabilities in this regard are seen when it designates smuggled vials of the Marburgvirus as a threat to national security, exports the data to the US government to retrieve and destroy the virus and later redirects these efforts to recover them for its own purposes. It also took interest in a tablet project as means of watching and influencing a greater portion of the U.S. population than it currently does. (“Honor Among Thieves”)
It also has advanced social engineering capabilities. (“Deus Ex Machina”) It is able to identify, predict and exploit the emotions and psychology as well as the behavior and reactions of people. (“Prophets”)(“Asylum”)(“B.S.O.D.”) One example of this is Samaritan's profiling of a mentally unstable man, then arranging his expulsion from his job to engineer a breakdown. The act compelled him to murder of his employers and subsequent murder spree after framing said employer. This was all to assassinate an unrelated individual (Simon Powell) who thus would appear as collateral damage of said murder spree. (“Prophets”) It also advised its asset, Shelly Spencer, on how to emotionally manipulate Control by "playing the mother card"; that is, citing her children, knowing Control lost her mother at an early age. (“Asylum”)
Systems Conflict[]
The Machine identifies Samaritan as status unknown. (“Lethe”)
Samaritan was initially categorized as "deactivated", the Machine later modifies its status of Samaritan to "unknown" after Control expresses interest in the Samaritan drives. As Samaritan and the Machine have similar objectives and processes, their parallel activities may have the potential to conflict. Initially the Machine's calculations gave a probability of over 5% and climbing that this may occur. (“Lethe”)
Soon after coming online, Samaritan began recruiting human assets through a "game" of its own design, in which participants unwittingly prove their worth to Samaritan. In the case of Claire Mahoney, the game manipulated her into acting as a proxy in preventing the emergence of another surveillance system. The recruitment occurs every 27 days in different cities across the globe.
However, Samaritan also had other operations as Greer is updated on Samaritan's exploits: the establishment of technology companies and startups on each continent across the globe fo the purpose of infiltrating society, alongside growing interest and proactiveness in acquiring new algorithms to better its own functionality. (“Pretenders”)
After the reconstruction of data on Shaw, Greer realizes Samaritan is blind to input on Team Machine, but doesn't know why. He assigns Martine Rousseau to find them using human intelligence instead, assisted by a team of agents. (“The Devil You Know”)
Finally, Samaritan's plans are partially revealed during The Correction, with which the A.I. will eliminate all who stand against progress. (“Asylum”) The event isn't a terrorist attack (like the Vigilance bombing) but a swift and silent action of Samaritan against all those it perceives as aberrant or disloyal, a list of small "corrections" on mankind. (“YHWH”) its goals are fully confirmed before its death, when negotiating with Finch: Despite the fears of The Machine and its assets, Samaritan has no desire to either wipe out humanity or enslave it. Instead, it hopes to reshape the environment in order for humanity to operate in its most efficient state possible. Those that refuse are deemed obstructionists and are eliminated.
Deploying All Assets (“Asylum”)
Samaritan set its eyes on The Machine as it interfered with its operations while fixing an election in New York City. (“Prophets”)
After exchanging Finch and Root's life for the Machine's location, Samaritan deploys all its assets (“Asylum”) and creates power surges in the U.S power grid to corner the Machine in a substation in Brooklyn and trying to destroy the Machine completely, but the core system of the Machine is moved to the Briefcase.(“YHWH”)
Samaritan manually tracking Enemy Combatants. (“B.S.O.D.”)
Samaritan attempts to complete its goal of destroying the Machine and its associates. Still blinded by the safeguard Root and the other members of Team Machine installed in it, it is unable to properly identify them, displaying "Internal Errors"; but Samaritan sends its agents to hunt them down. In Samaritan's view, Root has multiple profiles jumping around; even when she once calls herself "Root", Samaritan is still unable to "see" her eventually, but it is able to recogize her behavior. (“B.S.O.D.”) (“QSO”)
Destruction[]
- Main article: Destruction of Samaritan
After Root's death, Finch becomes determined to destroy Samaritan by any means necessary (“The Day the World Went Away”). So, aided by the Machine, he steals the ICE-9 virus (“Synecdoche”), infiltrates Fort Meade and uploads it to the NSA's intranet though Samaritan and Greer attempt to stop him. Capitalizing on the fact that the Machine would be destroyed too, Samaritan tries to convince Finch not to activate the virus. He refuses, stating the Machine is meant to protect humanity even through its own destruction (“.exe”).
After Finch activates the virus and Samaritan is destroyed gradually, a copy still exists on an "airgap" server in the Federal Reserve. With Reese's help, Finch destroys it and all but one compressed version sent through fiber optic lines using ICE-9. This copy escapes onto a Russian orbiting satellite, isolated from the virus and able to return to earth unharmed after it is eradicated. As a security measure, Samaritan launches a cruise missile at the building from which the satellite can be accessed to isolate its copy. Through Reese's sacrifice, the Machine's copy is uploaded to satellite, where it destroys Samaritan's last copy, eradicating the opposing AI once and for all while the Machine's copy survives (“return 0”).
Access[]
Beta Test[]
In “Death Benefit”, Samaritan is shown to have access to a range of systems to collect data and information:
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DOMAIN.AWARE.MIC.SYS |
CELL.GPS.SYS |
Executive Systems[]
During “Deus Ex Machina”, Samaritan is shown to possess the following subordinate component systems:
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INPUTS |
RATIONAL AGENTS |
Assets[]
Deceased Assets;
- John Greer (Primary Asset)
- Martine Rousseau (Asset 029)
- Jeremy Lambert (Asset 401)
- Jeffrey Blackwell (Asset 704)
- Martin LeRoux (Asset 810, later Asset 995)
- Zachary
- Shelly Spencer
- Tyler
Unknown Status Assets:
- Mona (Asset 295)
- Stewart (Asset 573)
- Mr. Flint
- Claire Mahoney (Asset 508)
- Travers
- Senator Ross Garrison
- Murrow
- Gabriel Hayward (Analog Interface)
- Briggs (Asset 1421)
- Barrett (Asset 1561)
- Brittany (Asset 1348)
Samaritan has thousands of operatives around the globe whose identities aren't known. (“Panopticon”) (“SNAFU”)
Identified Targets[]
Classification error: Disregard (“Deus Ex Machina”)
Threats to System[]
- Harold Finch: threat to eliminate, categorized as irrelevant after receiving a new identity. (“Deus Ex Machina”)
- John Reese: tracked to find Harold Finch (“Beta”), categorized as irrelevant after receiving a new identity. (“Deus Ex Machina”)
- Root: tracked to find Harold Finch (“Beta”), categorized as irrelevant after receiving a new identity. (“Deus Ex Machina”)
- Sameen Shaw: tracked to find Harold Finch (“Beta”), categorized as irrelevant after receiving a new identity. (“Deus Ex Machina”), categorized as a threat to eliminate after being located by Martine. (“Point of Origin”)(“The Devil You Know”)
- Grace Hendricks: auxiliary target, captured and traded for Finch. (“Beta”)
- Daniel Casey, Jason Greenfield, Daizo: threats to eliminate, most likely categorized as irrelevant after receiving new identities. (“Deus Ex Machina”)
Threats to National Security[]
- Umarov: deviant, apprehended by NYPD. (“Beta”)
- Alan B. Henderson: deviant, tracking. (“Deus Ex Machina”)
- Stephen E. Soto: Vigilance member, deviant, shot by Lambert (“Deus Ex Machina”)
- Jefferson : Vigilance member, deviant, shot by NYPD (“Deus Ex Machina”)
- Other threats and deviants since becoming active and beginning to catalogue the population.
Samaritan is also cataloging DNA, the purpose for this was vaguely mentioned by Mona, but remains unknown. (“Reassortment”)
Notable victims[]
Samaritan has caused or ordered the deaths or injuries of:
Team Machine[]
- The Machine:
- Harold Finch:
- Kidnapped by Samaritan agents (rescued) (“Beta”)
- Attempted assassination by Jeffrey Blackwell (failed). (“The Day the World Went Away”)
- Attempted suffocation (survived). (“.exe”)
- Shot by a Samaritan agent in the Federal Reserve vault (survived). (“return 0”)
- Root:
- Attacked multiple times by Samaritan agents (survived).
- Shot in the chest and killed by Jeffrey Blackwell. (“The Day the World Went Away”)
- John Reese:
- Sameen Shaw:
- Subjected to over 7,000 simulations. (“6,741”)
- Attempted to be killed multiple times by Samaritan agents.
- Lionel Fusco:
- Caught in an explosion set by Samaritan agents (injured) (“A More Perfect Union”).
- Injected with Samaritan's virus by Jeffrey Blackwell (survived due to cure). (“Reassortment”)
- Attempted assassination by Martin LeRoux (survived). (“.exe”)
- Attempted assassination by police officers bribed by Samaritan (survived). (“return 0”)
- Stabbed by Jeffrey Blackwell (survived). (“return 0”)
Samaritan Operatives[]
- John Greer: Suffocated. (“.exe”)
- Several Samaritan agents: Killed by a cruise missile fired by Samaritan. (“return 0”)
The Government[]
- Control: Kidnapped as part of the Correction. (“YHWH”)
- Devon Grice: Shot as part of the Correction. (“YHWH”)
- Schiffmann: Killed by lethal injection as part of the Correction. (“YHWH”)
Law Enforcement[]
- Joseph Soriano: Induced a heart attack through his pacemaker. (“B.S.O.D.”)
Organized Crime[]
- Dominic: Shot in the head as part of the Correction. (“YHWH”)
- Carl Elias:
- Shot in the chest as part of the Correction (survived). (“YHWH”) (“ShotSeeker”)
- Shot in the head and killed by a Samaritan agent. (“The Day the World Went Away”)
- Bruce Moran: Killed by Martin LeRoux. (“A More Perfect Union”) (“.exe”)
Other[]
- James Ko: Turned into the carrier for a Samaritan created virus (died of the virus). (“Reassortment”)
- Doctor Mason: Attempted infection with Samaritan's virus by Jeffrey Blackwell (failed) (“Reassortment”)
- Nurse Carroll: Injected with Samaritan's virus by Jeffrey Blackwell (survived with permanent kidney damage). (“Reassortment”)
- Others killed as part of the Correction. (“YHWH”)
- A tunnel full of people killed by Martin LeRoux. (“A More Perfect Union”) (“.exe”)
- Unnamed victims of Samaritan's virus - Many infected, several killed. (“Reassortment”)
Notes[]
- It is implied that Samaritan's software is more advanced than the Machine as Root tells Finch a computer chip capable of running it had only been recently developed. (“Root Path (/)”) The various graphics from Samaritan's viewpoint reinforce this idea: the comprehensive categorization of individuals, advanced pattern recognition (tracking people's routes and traffic) and higher cognitive processing. She also implies Samaritan's superiority is based on the Machine's limitations as Finch gave it morality, putting it into the service of humanity and forcing it to preserve human life, while Samaritan is left with control over them, as a slave to no one and no ideals other than its own. All this was confirmed in simulations, though the Machine lost those because it had other options if it failed, while in reality, it didn't. Nevertheless, the only reason The Machine won was because Root hard-coded defense capabilities into her core systems. In essence, a last-minute upgrade was the only thing that saved her.
- The Machine's POV has a slight barrel distortion, while Samaritan's has pincushion distortion, which causes vertical lines to bow inward, toward the center and is common with telephoto lenses.
- The facility in “Deus Ex Machina”, containing hundreds of Samaritan's servers, is one of hundreds around the globe.
- Samaritan halted the creation of another surveillance network and research into AI to prevent the emergence of more competing systems. (“Panopticon”) (“Nautilus”)
- Samaritan has a tendency to negotiate with rivals, notably with the Machine at Steiner Psychiatric Institute, successfully negotiating Finch and Root's release in exchange for the its location. (“Asylum”) Samaritan also attempted to negotiate with Finch through John Greer to have the Machine rule the world at its side and then negotiated with him personally through a computer screen to convince him not to activate the ICE-9 virus. Both efforts were unsuccessful. (“.exe”)
Secondary Objective Complete (“QSO”)
- Samaritan has a base near Johannesburg, South Africa, as Shaw ended up in a prison in Johannesburg after tunnelling out of the compound where she was held and travelling through a series of underground pipe-containing tunnels. She was intercepted by Jeremy Lambert soon after, though this didn't prevent her escape, it proved how efficiently and precisely Samaritan can locate targets. (“QSO”)(“Reassortment”)
- In “QSO”, it is revealed that Samaritan communicates with its many assets through electromagnetic pulses that can be heard through devices it has infected and through radio signal interference.
- In “.exe”, the Machine reveals Samaritan would've come into being with or without its existence. Though it would have been be able to spread into all aspects of society unchallenged as Team Machine didn't exist to combat it.
- In “.exe”, Finch says Arthur Claypool was a good man and that Samaritan must have been corrupted by John Greer and Decima Technologies. However, Greer states that he didn't corrupt Samaritan anymore than he can control it, indicating that if Greer was telling the truth, Samaritan has always been "evil" from its creation.
- In “return 0”, Samaritan briefly communicates with Finch through the giant viewscreens of Times Square, allowing thousands of people to see the messages it displays.
Trivia[]
- Samaritan uses Magda Clean Mono as its interface font.
- As shown in “QSO”, “The Day the World Went Away” and “.exe” Samaritan has chosen a male voice for itself that can be heard speaking to Root, Jeffrey Blackwell and Zachary.
- In Aletheia the Samaritan tapes are SAIT-1 (each 500 GB / 1.3 TB) tapes, while the machine later identifies them as LTO-4 (each 800 GB; the tapes shown are still the same SAIT-1 tapes shown previously in the episode). LTO-4 tapes were only available since 2007. The machine also displays that the (supposed) LTO-4 tapes use the LTO encryption based on AES-256-GCM, which would make them impossible to read without access to the keys of the original tape system.
- Comparing to the Machine, Samaritan uses white background while the Machine uses black in their databases, and Samaritan's time axis is vertical while the Machine's is horizontal.
Gallery[]
DEDICATION (“6,741”)
FAITH (“6,741”)
LOYALTY (“6,741”)
