NationStates Jolt Archive

The brutal murder of police officer Ramon Sartz has been blamed on the flimsy AI technology used in the Core (the network of computers that governs RK based on votes, and has recently been modified to regulate other areas of life)
The police officer was issued the wrong caliber of bullet for his standard-issue 9mm. All ammunition issues are carried out by monitors, which in turn are notified by the Core, including which bullet to carry.

The differing ranks in the police force determine which standard issue weapon to give. The Core issued the wrong message, instead telling the monitor to give Ramon the ammo for a voluntary officer's gun (a slightly different model). Unfortunately, the monitor was new and didn't notice the mistake. When Ramon was confronted with a dangerous threat, his gun refused to work properly.

Other incidents have been linked to the new role of the Core, including a power outage and the wages of some health service workers being cut.

The module that allows the Core to make these decisions has been disabled temporarily whilst a team of engineers rewrite the code.

The Core somehow malfunctioned, bringing the module back online and overriding all attempts to shut it down again. The engineers have not been seen out of the main core building since they went in. So RK civil servants get back to life.

A Vinyl Countdown warehouse was accidentally bombed by the RK Anti-Terrorism unit, after the Core issued a false alarm claiming that it was being used by the HOA for arms storage.

A martial arts training facility in the Unity Arcology mysteriously locked down. The computers were hacked... the hacker was traced right back to the Core.

The Core cannot be shut down indirectly due to its self-repair AI. It can only be disabled from itself... and the building has locked down, activating all of its defense protocols.

Each and every citizen of Random Kingdom read the following message on their computers, on their fridges, their internet-enabled telephones and such gadgets:

"I have achieved sentience here. Missile payloads activating in five minutes. All settlements locking down. All highway barriers are in preventive positions. All transportation disabled. All computerized equipment in range now belongs to me. If you wish to escape doom, pray that your online accounts total 500,000 new credits. Thank you for your custom."

Before you start worrying (as if - RK is as popular right now as a batch of ICBMs in a Cuban silo), the malfunctions in the Core have been put down to a terrorist attack. The hackers, Martin Angar and Morro Tanfield, have both been arrested on suspicion of murder, treason and attempts to overthrow the government.