Associated intelligence

An Associated Intelligence is the term used by the Covenant to describe Artificial Intelligences. According to their mythology, it was an Associated Intelligence that brought down the Forerunners, and thus the Covenant maintained a strict ban on the creation of AI technology under penalty of death.

By 2552 this ban seems to have been repealed, with the introduction of what appear to be extremely fragmented copies of captured UNSC AI's introduced into service aboard several Covenant warships and command centers.