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By 2552 this ban seems to have been repealed, with the introduction of extremely fragmented copies of UNSC AI's introduced into service aboard Covenant warships.