Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, or A.I., was developed by the UNSC in cooperation with ONI. The first generation "Smart" A.I.s were believed to be developed in the 21st century.

Creation
The process of creating an A.I. is different to what most people realize. Instead of simply "programming" an A.I., the A.I. 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. 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 A.I. 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" A.I. on the planet Reach. She has extensive knowledge on how A.I.s work.

Smart and Dumb A.I.s
Most A.I.s give themselves a unique appearance (otherwise known as an avatar) that corresponds to their main use. "Smart" A.I.s, or A.I.s that are not confined to their one purpose, have a normal operational life span of about seven years. Because the "Smart" A.I. is subject to an established memory core which cannot be replaced, the more the A.I. collects data, the less "thinking" space it has to work with. An A.I. literally "thinks" itself to death. Dumb A.I.s 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 A.I.s can function and learn as long as they are active.

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

Rampancy


If a "smart" human A.I. exists for over 7 years, it usually enters a stage of rampancy similar to the human state of insanity. The A.I. begins to think that it is superior to its human creators, and has delusions of godlike power.

343 Guilty Spark, the Forerunner Monitor went rampant after Sgt. Johnson threatened to destroy the replacement for his Installation, showing that even Forerunner A.I.'s can go rampant and that A.I.s can go rampant when severely upset or threatened. The Forerunner A.I. 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 A.I. 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 A.I. 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 A.I. Since A.I.s 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 A.I.s 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" A.I.s 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 A.I., in the case of Cortana and her likeness to Dr. Catherine Halsey.

Human A.I.s
Other than the two types "Dumb" and "Smart," human A.I.s 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" A.I.s. 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 A.I.s are sometimes considered to be comparable to known Forerunner A.I.s. Human Smart A.I.s 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 A.I. Juliana. This time limit can (in theory) be prevented, or at least subdued, by having the A.I. 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 A.I.s, but it is unlikely. If this time limit did exist in Forerunner A.I.s, it would most likely be much longer than seven years. The "7 years" is also another obvious reference to Bungie's favorite number.

One example of the tasks "Dumb" AIs are tasked for is managing an entire city's infrastructure. These constructs are known as Urban Infrastructure A.I.s. All of Earth's tether cities are managed with the help of such construct. Urban Infrastructure A.I.s perform a wide variety of basic tasks, such as driving the city's garbage trucks 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 A.I., the Superintendent assisted the UNSC forces in the city in fighting off the Covenant.

Known Human A.I.s



 * Araquiel - Colonel Ackerson's personal A.I. (Third Generation Smart A.I.)
 * Beowulf - Was the attaché to Admiral Michael Stanforth and the UNSC Navy.
 * Cortana - CTN 0452-9 - UNSC Military A.I. (Third Generation Smart A.I.)
 * Deep Winter - Overseer of UNSC facilities on planet Onyx, succeeding Enternal Spring. (Fifth Generation Smart A.I.)
 * Déjà - ONI A.I., served as teacher to the SPARTAN-II's, helped oversee the SPARTAN Augmentation Process. (Second Generation Dumb A.I.)
 * Doppler - MIL A.I. 8575 - UNSC Military A.I.
 * Endless Summer - MIL A.I. 4279 - Overseer of UNSC facilities on planet Onyx, succeeding Deep Winter. (Sixth Generation Smart A.I.)
 * Eternal Spring - First Known Overseer of UNSC facilities on planet Onyx, aided in reconnaissance of Zone 67. (Fourth Generation Smart A.I.)
 * FitzGibbon - Was the ship-board A.I. of the UNSC Prophecy during the Second Battle of Harvest.
 * Iona - A.I. attached to Black Team.
 * Jerrod - The first micro-A.I.
 * Juliana - The Rubble's A.I.
 * Kalmiya - Dr. Halsey's former personal A.I., Cortana's "older sister". (Second Generation Smart A.I.)
 * Loki - Ship A.I. of the UNSC Skidbladnir.
 * Lorelei - Ship A.I. of the CMA Season of Plenty
 * Lysithea - UNSC/ONI A.I., was located in the UNSC High Command's headquarters, HighCom Facility Bravo-6 in Sydney, Australia.
 * Mack - Colony A.I./Agricultural Operations.
 * Melissa - UNSC/ONI A.I., attached to UNSC Apocalypso.
 * Pallas Athena - Boston Public Library A.I.
 * Serina - UNSC A.I., served aboard the UNSC Spirit of Fire.
 * Sif - Colony A.I./Special Operations.
 * Solipsil - An ONI A.I.
 * Superintendent - New Mombasa Urban Infrastructure A.I. (Second Generation Dumb A.I.)
 * Toran - UNSC A.I., served aboard UNSC Han during the SPARTAN Observation Process.
 * Vergil - Sub-section of the Superintendent. Programmed to watch over Sadie Endesha.
 * Wellsley - UNSC Military - Military dumb A.I.

Forerunner A.I.s


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

The manner in which Forerunner A.I.s 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 A.I.s are physically represented by large, shielded and roughly spherical metallic "robots" whom possess a single "eye", which is possibly used to perceive the monitors physical surroundings. The most well known of Forerunner A.I.s are the protocol-obsessed Monitors, made famous by 343 Guilty Spark and his quirky (and somewhat unstable) nature.

Known Forerunner A.I.s

 * 343 Guilty Spark - Monitor of Installation 04
 * 2401 Penitent Tangent - Monitor of Installation 05
 * Mendicant Bias - Wartime A.I., overseer of Defense Plan against the Flood, defected from the Forerunners by Gravemind.
 * Offensive Bias - Wartime A.I., replacement to and destroyer of Mendicant Bias.
 * Unnamed Forerunner A.I. - A.I. on the Flood-Controlled Shield World.
 * Cold Storage Monitor - A.I. on the multiplayer Cold Storage level
 * AdjutantReflex - "A.I." that acted for Bungie on their forums during the Iris ARG.
 * 686 Ebullient Prism - A.I. monitor of the line of Installation 1-4.

Covenant A.I.s
So far only two types of Covenant A.I.s (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 A.I.s were most likely captured UNSC A.I.s, which were altered to fit within their theocratic society. In Covenant mythology it was a Forerunner A.I. 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.

Trivia

 * Smart A.I.s enter rampancy after 7 years of operation. This is yet another Bungie "7" reference.
 * Mack is the only known A.I. to procrastinate something.