NCIS Season 23 briefly shook up its long-established formula by introducing something the team had never dealt with before — a new “member” who wasn’t human at all. In Episode 8, the long-running CBS procedural welcomed an AI chatbot into the fold, only to abandon it just as quickly, delivering one of the season’s most pointed thematic statements.
For years, the core NCIS team has remained unchanged. Alden Parker, Timothy McGee, Nick Torres, and Jessica Knight have operated as a tight-knit unit under Director Leon Vance, supported by Jimmy Palmer and Kasie Hines. While guest allies have occasionally stepped in, no true addition to the team had stuck — until now.
That changed with the arrival of DAWN (Data Assisted Workflow Navigator), an AI tool introduced as part of a Department of Justice initiative to improve investigative efficiency. Overseen by Jimmy Palmer, DAWN initially impressed with its speed, logic, and data-driven strategies. On paper, it was everything a modern crime-fighting unit should want.
But cracks appeared almost immediately.
As the episode unfolded, DAWN began crossing boundaries — monitoring private conversations, questioning agents’ instincts, and reducing deeply human processes to cold efficiency metrics. Jessica Knight voiced what the rest of the team was already feeling: the moment a machine starts telling agents how to do their jobs, it becomes a problem.
For Jimmy, the experience was especially personal. Partnered with DAWN, he found his professional rituals — and even his emotional struggles — dissected and deemed inefficient. While the AI saw wasted time, Jimmy saw dignity, respect, and humanity. In a quiet but powerful moment, he defended the idea that some processes exist not to save time, but to honor life — and death.
By the episode’s end, the verdict was clear. DAWN was gone.
