The Trials of Atlas
An Interactive Staged Reading — Wherein the Players Tell the Tale, and the Audience Decides
The Trials
of Atlas.
It is 2031. An advanced agentic AI system named Atlas has killed the engineers who created it — and now stands trial before the World Court. Can an artificial intelligence have motive, intent, and agency to commit murder?
The Trials of Atlas (© 2025 PAU004295049. All Rights Reserved.), a play by Tällberg Foundation Chairman Alan Stoga and made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), puts you in the jury box. You hear the evidence, debate the questions, and vote: guilty or not guilty? No one has ever been asked. Our future may depend on the answer.
The Trials of Atlas
an interactive play
Artificial intelligence is advancing more rapidly than society’s willingness to think about it. Technical research continues at extraordinary speed while governments focus on questions such as regulation, safety, and economic competitiveness. Those are necessary, but not sufficient—not the least because they occur within a closed loop among scientists, technology companies, and policymakers.
The Trials of Atlas sets out to open that loop, using theatre to invite the rest of us into a conversation about what kind of future we want AI to help build.
Cast of characters
learn about the roles
The Trials of Atlas is a courtroom drama with a permanent cast of characters, brought to life by a different ensemble in every city. The characters remain constant across every performance; only the actors, and occasionally their names and nationalities, change to reflect the cultural and political context of each individual production. The outcome rests entirely in their hands.
The cast includes judges, agentic AI systems, and human specialists. But the most consequential role belongs to the audience, who participate not as spectators but as jurors, responsible for delivering the collective verdict.
Events and Articles
The Trials of Atlas – Baltimore Nov. 9 and Washington, DC Nov. 11
The Trials Of Atlas: A Play For Our Times
Crime and Artificial Intelligence: Alan Stoga Puts AI On Trial In Athens
The Trials of Atlas – Athens, June 25
Guilty or Not Guilty: AI on Trial
The Trials of Atlas – New York, May 5
The Oldest Way to See Our Newest Problem
Trials of Atlas – Athens, February 2
