Cortana/Silver

Cortana is an artificial intelligence in the United Nations Space Command.

Creation
In 2552, Dr. Catherine Halsey attempted to get Vice Admiral Margaret Parangosky's permission to create Cortana without any success. Nevertheless, Halsey secretly cloned herself at least once against orders. While visiting Halsey's lab following the Attack on Madrigal, Parangosky spotted the flash clone and berated Halsey for her actions. Parangosky ordered Halsey to destroy the clone and any others that she might have made. Later, as John-117 started to go rogue, Halsey again tried to get the Admiral to approve "the Cortana system" without any success.

During a meeting with UNSC HIGHCOM, Halsey suggested Cortana as a solution to controlling John. Halsey explained that, similar to how Spartan bodies had been enhanced to the limits of their current technology, Cortana would do something similar for their minds. Cortana would overwrite the Spartan minds and replace them with an artificial general intelligence. Halsey called Cortana the next stage in human evolution with the Spartans being the first step and Cortana being the upgrade. Halsey stated that Cortana represented "the sum total of every available data point. The intelligence of the galaxy in essence." With Cortana, the UNSC could create Spartans who were more lethal, had error-free judgment, upgradable performance and who were most importantly controllable. Halsey pointed out that the Spartan were the UNSC's only effective weapon against the Covenant and insisted that with Cortana's help, they could win this war. Although one of the officers expressed concern about the need for illegal flash cloning of humans, Lord Hood asked if Parangosky, as the head of ONI, was onboard with this plan. Blindsided by Halsey's revelation of her plan to HIGHCOM, Parangosky reluctantly agreed that the case of John provided an opportunity for a limited trial of the system. Hood then agreed to implementation of the program, leaving it to Parangosky to handle the technical hurdles.

Shortly after John's return, Halsey awakened her clone from stasis.

Production notes
Cortana in Halo: The Television Series is portrayed by Jen Taylor. Natascha McElhone was originally cast to play both Cortana and Catherine Halsey, much like Jen Taylor did for Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians, and Halo Infinite. However, due to scheduling difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, McElhone was unable to complete her work as Cortana, so Jen Taylor was brought onboard the project to reprise her role from the games.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Television Series
 * Contact
 * Unbound
 * Emergence
 * Homecoming