Artificial Intelligence

"The public’s basic understanding of Artificial Intelligence is all wrong. Because AIs, like the ones directing traffic in most major cities, are usually given a facial logo and a name, most people consider them electronic personalities. This is terribly off target. An AI is utterly alien to the human mind. It is an incomprehensible, autonomous thinking construct to which all concepts of morality and emotion are foreign. Just because the face on the monitor at your local library smiles at you doesn’t mean that the AI behind it has any understanding of friendliness whatsoever. To an AI, a human being is just another variable."

- Kyojio Sashumori, psychiatric consultant specializing in aberrant AI behavior.

"That AI can’t be any smarter than the fools who punched its deck the first time around. Now me, I’ll play chicken with SHODAN anytime."

- Stevie Sanchez, Citadel diagnostic analyst following SHODAN’s first malfunction.

AI (Artificial Intelligence). A sentient, synthetic mind, usually a highly intelligent computer. Examples include SHODAN and XERXES.