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Artificial Intelligence

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File:Cortana Halo 3.jpg
The human AI Cortana has female programming and a blue avatar.

Artificial intelligence, abbreviated AI, is an artificially created construct that exhibits intelligence similar to a sentient being. AIs were known to be used by the Forerunners, and later by humanity to a great extent. The first generation "Smart" AIs were developed by humanity in the mid-21st century.[1]

Most AI constructs give themselves a unique appearance (otherwise known as an avatar) that corresponds to their main use.

Creation

The process of creating an AI is different to what most people realize. Instead of simply "programming" a "Smart" AI, the AI matrix is actually created by sending electric bursts through the neural pathways of a human brain which are then replicated in a superconducting nano-assemblage in a process known as Cognitive Impression Modeling. This destroys the original brain tissue however, and so the brain being used could only be obtained after the host had died. However, in some instances, as in the case of the AI Cortana, the candidate brain was flash-cloned and had its memories transferred to the receptacle organs so that the host, in this case Dr. Catherine Halsey, could remain alive. However, this is extremely inefficient. In the case of Cortana out of twenty of Dr Halsey's cloned brains, only two of them took.

It should be noted that Dr. Halsey supervised the creation of the template for every third-generation "Smart" AI on the planet Reach. She has extensive knowledge on how AIs work.

Smart and Dumb AIs

"Smart" AIs, or AIs that are not confined to their one purpose, have a normal operational life span of about seven years. Because the "Smart" AI is subject to an established memory core which cannot be replaced, the more the AI collects data, the less "thinking" space it has to work with. An AI literally "thinks" itself to death. Dumb AIs do not have this problem as they do not learn anything that is outside of their set limits of dynamic memory processing matrix. They are quite useful in their particular field of expertise, but very limited. Smart AIs can function and learn as long as they are active.[2]

Rampancy

343 Guilty Spark in a stage of Rampancy shortly before his destruction.
Main article: Rampancy

If a "smart" human AI exists for over 7 years, it usually enters a stage of rampancy similar to the human state of insanity. The AI begins to think that it is superior to its human creators, and has delusions of godlike power.[3] However, the impression that Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: First Strike gives is that the AI would lose all combat effectiveness by being permanently locked in a state of thought, like daydreaming - the description given is "as if a human were to think with so much of their brain that they stopped sending impulses to the heart and lungs." This is because as the data reaches a 'critical mass' the neural pathways become 'jammed' with so many pieces of information being queried and analysed, at expense of tasks such as piloting starships or monitoring computer networks.

343 Guilty Spark, the Forerunner Monitor went rampant after Sgt. Johnson threatened to destroy the replacement for his Installation, showing that even Forerunner AIs can go rampant and that AIs can go rampant when severely upset or threatened. The Forerunner AI Mendicant Bias went rampant, as it tried to stop the Forerunners from activating the Halo Array after being convinced by the Gravemind to do so. The Covenant AI in Halo: First Strike also went rampant after it attacked Cortana, and Cortana herself went rampant for a time while imprisoned in High Charity.

Design

It is technically unclear exactly how an AI works, as it is only based on the functionality of a human brain, which UNSC scientists do not fully understand. AIs do not have physical bodies, rather they are advanced software consisting of a Riemann Matrix for higher-function processing. This matrix can be downloaded into a Data Crystal Chip for mobility. In case of Rampancy, the Riemann Matrix has a fail-safe program that will destroy the AI Since AIs must be created by mapping out the connections of a human brain, it seems likely that the UNSC does not have an understanding of how to create AIs from scratch, and is limited to simply "copying" the intelligence of biological organisms. In the real world, this is an established possibility for creating artificial intelligence.

They can only take physical form where holographic technology is available. This requires a Holotank of some kind.

Because "Smart" AIs are created using either actual human brains or cloned human brains there are often times residual thoughts, memories and/or feelings that remain. These residuals can be anywhere from the "feeling" of a hair brush being pulled through hair in the case of Sif or even have an effect on the mannerisms and characteristics that make up the personality of an AI, in the case of Cortana and her likeness to Dr. Catherine Halsey.

Human AIs

Other than the two types "Dumb" and "Smart," human AIs are given certain purposes. Over the course of a few hundred years, humans have developed a highly advanced understanding of this type of technology, and are capable of creating intelligent and nearly sentient "Smart" AIs. However, these beings are not the result of actual programming, they can only be created by "copying" a human intelligence, which is only possible by destroying the original brain. The most sophisticated of human AIs are sometimes considered to be comparable to known Forerunner AIs. Human Smart AIs have an "expiration" date of seven years. Once they have reached this age, they will become very susceptible to rampancy, as has been demonstrated in the Insurrectionist AI Juliana. This time limit can (in theory) be prevented, or at least subdued, by having the AI focus on one thing. In the case of Juliana, the Rubble and its inhabitants. It is unknown whether this limitation is also apparent in Forerunner AIs, but it is unlikely. If this time limit did exist in Forerunner AIs, it would most likely be much longer than seven years. The "7 years" is also another obvious reference to Bungie's favorite number.

Humans use AIs, both "Smart" or "Dumb", to perform a variety of specific tasks. These include, but are not limited to, controlling planetary shipping operations like Sif, managing agricultural operations like Mack or serving as a Planetary Security Intelligence like Loki. One example of civilian use for "Dumb" AIs is managing an entire city's infrastructure. These constructs are known as Urban Infrastructure AIs. All of Earth's tether cities are managed with the help of such construct. Urban Infrastructure AIs perform a wide variety of basic tasks, examples such as driving the city's garbage trucks to operating the traffic lights. They can also work in cooperation with the UNSC Marines if needed. One example of this is the Battle of Mombasa, when New Mombasa's AI, the Superintendent assisted the UNSC forces in the city in fighting off the Covenant.

The Cole Protocol states that capture of an AI by the Covenant is unacceptable. When in danger of capture, AIs are to be terminated and completely erased. However, the AI Cortana did find what seemed to be an extremely fragmented copy of a human AI stationed in the Covenant flagship, Ascendant Justice.

Known Human AIs

The avatar of the human AI Serina.

Forerunner AIs

File:200px-Spark-halo3.jpg
An example of a Forerunner AI, the infamous Monitor of Installation 04, 343 Guilty Spark.

As exemplified by the Monitors, the Forerunners have developed a civilization with an extremely advanced knowledge of artificial intelligence technologies. Forerunner AIs have managed to achieve full sentience and are highly intelligent.

The manner in which Forerunner AIs are created is unknown, yet is probably very different from the human method of cloning the intelligence of a sentient organism. Monitors, and possibly other Forerunner AIs are physically represented by large, shielded and roughly spherical metallic "robots" whom possess a single "eye", which is possibly used to perceive the monitor's physical surroundings. The most well known of Forerunner AIs are the protocol-obsessed Monitors, made famous by 343 Guilty Spark and his quirky (and somewhat unstable) nature.

Known Forerunner AIs

Covenant AIs

Main article: Associated Intelligence

So far only two types of Covenant AIs (Security and Naval) have ever been encountered within the universe. Their knowledge in this type of technology appears to be inferior to that of the UNSC and the Forerunner, as demonstrated by the fact that their AIs were most likely captured UNSC AIs, which were altered to fit within their theocratic society. In Covenant mythology it was a Forerunner AI that lead to the demise of the great Forerunner civilization by defecting to their enemies, the Flood. As a result, the Hierarchs of the Covenant imposed a ban on this sort of technology, a ban which has apparently been broken on more than one occasion. The ban may be an explanation for their less-developed understanding of artificial intelligences.[4]

Goals

It is revealed in Reach', via datapads (especially legendaries ones) that UNSC AIs are far more independant that Humans think. AI are however fiercely loyal and devoted to their Creators. This devotion (that appears to be not unlike Covenant devotion to the Forerunners) is even increased when one AI, shortly before the battle of Reach, was made flesh-her mind relocated into a Human body. (As a side note, the religious parallelism is rather obvious)


Trivia

  • Smart AIs enter rampancy after 7 years of operation. This is yet another Bungie "7" reference.
  • Mack is the only known AI to procrastinate something.

Gallery

Sources

  1. ^ Halo: Contact Harvest, page 30
  2. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 235
  3. ^ "For a Smart AI, self-absorption invariably led to a deep depression caused by a realization that it could never really be human-that even its incredible mind had limits. If the AI wasn’t careful, this melancholy could drag its core logic into a terminal state known as rampancy, in which an AI rebelled against its programmatic constraints-developed delusions of godlike power as well as utter contempt for its more inferior, human makers. When that happened, there was really no option but to terminate the AI before it could do itself and others serious harm.", Halo: Contact Harvest, page 31
  4. ^ Halo: First Strike
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