For decades, handmade narco subs have been some of the cocaine trade's most elusive and productive workhorses, ferrying multi-ton loads of illicit drugs from Colombian estuaries toward markets in North America and, increasingly, the rest of the world. Now off-the-shelf technology--Starlink terminals, plug-and-play nautical autopilots, high-resolution video cameras--may be advancing that cat-and-mouse game into a new phase. Uncrewed subs could move more cocaine over longer distances, and they wouldn't put human smugglers at risk of capture. And law enforcement around the world is just beginning to grapple with what this means for the future. This story is from the next print issue of magazine, which is all about crime. Google DeepMind is calling for the moral behavior of large language models--such as what they do when called on to act as companions, therapists, medical advisors, and so on--to be scrutinized with the same kind of rigor as their ability to code or do math.

Fast, stealthy, and cheap--autonomous, semisubmersible drone boats carrying tons of cocaine could be international law enforcement's nightmare scenario. A big one just came ashore. Colombian military officials intercepted this 40-foot-long uncrewed fiberglass "narco sub" in the ocean just off Tayrona National Park. On a bright morning last April, a surveillance plane operated by the Colombian military spotted a 40-foot-long shark-like silhouette idling in the ocean just off Tayrona National Park. It was, unmistakably, a "narco sub," a stealthy fiberglass vessel that sails with its hull almost entirely underwater, used by drug cartels to move cocaine north. The plane's crew radioed it in, and eventually nearby coast guard boats got the order, routine but urgent: Intercept. In Cartagena, about 150 miles from the action, Captain Jaime González Zamudio, commander of the regional coast guard group, sat down at his desk to watch what happened next.