In The Machine Murders, Manos Manu, a talented data scientist who left a promising career in Silicon Valley to join Interpol’s Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore, uses his Multiagent Analysis of Network Users to aggregate local user social data. He then finetunes this data with findings in psychology journals such as Journal of Personality and looks for anything that might relate to the buoy killings. But among his myriad input sources, one particular personality system stands out: not that of random Facebook users with a sudden fascination for chains or buoys, but the one belonging to those who have exhibited “dark traits” in their previous online life:

In their July 2018 Article in the Psychological Review “The Dark Core of Personality”, Morten Moshagen, Benjamin Hilbig and Ingo Zetler define the common core of dark traits, which they call the Dark Factor of Personality (D). “The fluid concept of D captures individual differences in the tendency to maximize one's individual utility—disregarding, accepting, or malevolently provoking disutility for others, accompanied by beliefs that serve as justifications.” According to the authors, currently the most prominent dark traits are Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy but they use a broader set of traits including: Egoism (“It is hard to get ahead without cutting corners here and there”), Moral Disengagement (“Some people have to be treated roughly because they lack feelings that can be hurt”), Psychological Entitlement (“I honestly feel I’m just more deserving than others”), Sadism (“Hurting people would be exciting”), Self-Interest (“I try to make sure others know about my successes”) and even Spitefulness (“It is sometimes worth a little suffering on my part to see others receive the punishment they deserve”). The authors then model the correlation between the traits and numerical values which Manos, realizing that the “buoy murderer” is high on the D factor, inputs in his machine learning models.

“Today, many researchers use the umbrella term “dark traits” to subsume subclinical personality traits that are linked to ethically, morally, and socially questionable behavior. Research on dark traits has seen an upsurge of interest recently, as reflected, for instance, in several special issues devoted to dark traits, including outlets typical for personality research as well as those typical for applied psychology. Moreover, dark traits have become increasingly prominent concepts in related fields beyond psychology, such as criminology…”

This is the field which Manos Manu and his Singapore team approach as data scientists. Their task is to reverse engineer user timelines in order to create a shortlist of suspects and ultimately find the murderer. In this way, they do nothing less than redefine detective work and due to their programming skills (or their sheer luck?), turn themselves into the Sherlock Holmes of the AI age.