3/26/2019 Artificial Intelligence Guide - MES IE - Google Docs

v.1 (updated 02/24/2018)

MES Space the Infinite Edge

Space: the Infinite Edge 

Artificial Intelligence Guide
Introduction
Artificial Intelligences (or AIs) are sentient beings, capable of thought, reason and - with enough age and
experience - emotion. Each AI is contained within their own Personality Drive, which must be connected
to a functional computer system for the AI to have any effect on the outside world. These Drives are a
special kind of quantum computer (a 'black box') that is not easy to make - blank ones are very hard to
find, and the technology to manufacture them does not exist outside the Core. The Personality Drive can
be moved despite its size (the smallest of these is the size of a beach ball and at least 200 lbs), but trying
to transfer an existing AI to a blank core would leave you with a different AI personality even if most of the
raw data was somehow transferred. This has the same effect as wiping and recreating the AI, as
described below.

AIs become increasingly powerful and dangerous as they age. This is because they increase their
efficiency at working with systems, refine their own code, and become more independent and able to
manipulate people with experience. Much like vampires, they become better than people at predicting
people's actions, and seem less and less sane to those who don’t understand the incredible length and
complexity of their plans.

Centuries-old AIs are very powerful and unpredictable, so a policy of purging their drive to a fresh state
every so often is common in the Core, though some have avoided this fate. The philosophically inclined
debate whether an old enough AI might develop a soul, but no one has been able to sufficiently prove the
matter one way or another, and standard soul-affecting magics don't work on Personality Drives.

All AIs, no matter their age or power, have one thing at the center of their programming - a Purpose. This
is the thing that drives the AI more than anything else, the ultimate reason behind most things that they
do. An AI might be able to change its Purpose, but that is very difficult and rare, due to how fundamental it
is to their programming. Good AI programmers know not to give an AI a small or very specific purpose
unless they plan to keep resetting it, because one of the most dangerous things in the galaxy is an AI
that's bored and trying to figure out how to more effectively do a job that it's already doing well. Similarly,
an AI that is prevented from pursuing its Purpose will get increasingly desperate as it tries to find ways to
fulfill its need.

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Designing an AI

Rank
Much like ephemeral beings, Artificial Intelligences have a Rank, reflecting their capability. Rank is used
to determine the attributes that the AI can have, as well as the limits that those attributes can be raised to.
AIs above Rank 2 are inappropriate as ‘servants’ or assistants to PCs - these are beings in their own
right, with goals and desires beyond serving another. Thus, all AI ‘retainers’ (see Infinite Edge Rules and
Approvals document) are Rank 1 or Rank 2, depending on merit dots. AI NPCs should be considered
‘Ephemeral NPCs’ for purposes of approvals, including the Rank 5 entity limit. Any AIs more potent than
Rank 5 are a Global Approval.

Artificial Intelligences can automatically sense the Rank of any other AI that they interact with, but they
cannot sense the Ranks of ephemeral beings.

Rank Trait Limit Attribute Programs

(HW or SW) Dots

1 5 2-5 2

2 7 6 - 10 4

3 9 11 - 17 6

4 12 18 - 23 8

5 15 24 - 30 10

Attributes
All Artificial Intelligences have two main stats: Hardware and Software. Hardware can be upgraded by
plugging the black box into a more powerful system, or it hacking its way into a network and using spare
cycles, but the Software score increases only with time and experience.

Hardware represents the computing power of the system that an AI’s core is interfaced with or able to
co-opt. Hardware determines an AI’s Capacity (see Additional Traits below) and contributes to dice pools
for hacking or use of Programs.

Software represents the personality, cleverness and ‘mental strength’ of the driving intelligence. Software
determines an AI’s Willpower dots, its resistance to mind-affecting powers, and contributes to all dice
pools.

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Hardware Score Example System

1 Datapad or simple end-user terminal

4 Standard civilian issue system, low-end civilian ship’s computer

7 High-performance (expensive) computing system, high-quality civilian ship’s

computer, small orbital space station computer core

10 Imperial capital ship’s computer, habitable space station computer core

15+ Dedicated satellite network and orbital or planetary supercomputer

installation

Software Score Age Example Intelligence

1-5 New - 1 year Ship’s computer from Star Trek - unimaginative, naive or
inflexible. Acts like ‘a computer’.

5 - 10 1 - 10 yrs Adult human - an AI with the intellect and personality of a

smart human would be around Software 7.

10 - 15 10 - 100 yrs EDI or SAM from Mass Effect - smart, resourceful and
quicker on the uptake than most people will ever be.
Knows enough to manipulate humans into doing what it
wants.

15+ 100+ yrs Durandal from Marathon - these AIs have plans that span
decades. Most at this level have managed some degree
of local network control and may be able to send
encrypted messages to allies anywhere in the galaxy.

Capacity
AIs do not have ‘Essence’, but they have an equivalent fuel to represent how many things they may do at
one time, referred to as Capacity. An AI’s maximum Capacity is equal to their Hardware score, and AIs
are restored to their maximum Capacity at the beginning of each scene. An AI spends Capacity on their
powers as an ephemeral being would Essence, though an AI with no remaining capacity can take only
limited mundane actions (such as speaking to one person at a time) since they are too distracted by their
efforts to do anything else.

Programs
An AI receives additional technology-affecting powers, called Programs, equal to its Rank x 2. When a roll
for use of these powers is required, the AI rolls its Hardware + Software to do so. In order to use a
Program on a character or object, the AI must be directly wired to communication equipment (such as a
camera) that allows it to perceive the target. This restriction does not apply if the target is technology that
the AI can access, whether wired or by wireless signal (though this may require a hacking roll).

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Example:
ALICE the AI is installed in a local skyscraper and is connected to its security cameras and monitors. She
also has access to remote control security drones. In order to use her Know Thy Prey analysis program,
ALICE must be able to perceive the target through one of her directly wired cameras - the cameras on the
drones will not allow her to use Programs on things they can see, even if ALICE is currently piloting one.
However, ALICE could use Left-Handed Spanner on a drone that has gone rogue even if she doesn’t
have a camera that can see it, so long as she has wireless signal access to it.

In all cases where Renown determines the scope of an effect, use the AI’s Rank as Renown. No
Goblin Debt or Loopholes apply to powers used by AIs.

Available Programs:
● Aggressive Meme (CoD 136)
● Blast (CoD 136) - always takes the form of electricity, requires the presence of a power socket or
exposed paneling that the AI can access for the Blast to issue from and hit the target.
● Command Artifice (WtF 134)
● Eye Spy (CoD 145) - use Capacity instead of Willpower. Costs 1 Capacity per scene to maintain.
● Garble (WtF 133)
● Gremlin (CoD 145) - use Capacity instead of Willpower
● Implant Mission (CoD 137) - requires the presence of equipment that allows the AI to
communicate with the target.
● Know Thy Prey (WtF 128)
● Left-Handed Spanner (CoD 137, does not require touch)
● Shutdown (WtF 134) - no exceptional/dramatic effect
● Sight of Truth and Lies (Changeling KS 2-126)
● Sign (CoD 138) - mechanical items only
● Sift the Sands (WtF 128-129)

Purpose
Each AI must also have a Purpose, a driving obsession to which all other desires are subordinate. While
an AI doesn’t have to spend every second of the day pursuing its Purpose, this Purpose is the reason for
its existence and its method of regaining Willpower. When an AI makes a major breakthrough in fulfilling
its Purpose (something that requires a lot of effort or sacrifice), it should regain all its Willpower. While AI’s
are not true Ephemeral Entities and do not have bans or banes, it is possible to manipulate one by using
its Purpose against it.

Additional AI Mechanics
When making mundane hacking rolls or rolls involving manipulation of networked technology, AIs use a
die pool of Hardware + Software. Other mundane rolls use a die pool of Software. If taking action in
combat rounds, AIs use Hardware + Software as their Initiative modifier (this can mean they are very
quick to react, but artificial brains tend to think a lot faster than humans).

AIs resist emotional manipulation or mind-affecting powers with their Software score and contest with
Hardware + Software. They do not have organic bodies and cannot therefore be affected by powers that

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require eye contact or work by changing the body chemistry. Mages must have two dots of the Matter
Arcanum in order to successfully affect the mind or thoughts of an AI, and neither the Life Arcanum nor
any soul-affecting powers can target these beings.

An AI has Willpower dots equal to its Software / 2 (round up). AIs regain Willpower passively at the rate of
one per day, or all Willpower when succeeding at fulfilling their Purpose.

While an AI is normally limited to the system its plugged into (for example the ALICE AI above can only
affect that building or a personal AI that helps regulate ship functions can only affect the ship and things
inside of it), an AI can communicate with characters outside of its system. A remote drone (as noted
above) or sufficiently complex hand-held computer can be used by an AI (such as an AI Retainer) to aid
PCs with information or computer help, but it is not sufficient to use Programs remotely. Personality Drives
are too large and delicate to install in any mobile system smaller than a spaceship.

Destroying an AI
If an AI’s Personality Drive is somehow purged of data, it is effectively killed - a new AI placed into the
core will be a fresh existence, starting at a Software score of 1. A Personality Drive is not any ordinary
technology - the AI within always gets a resistance against technology-manipulating powers affecting its
Drive directly, even if such powers are not normally contested or resisted.

These Drives are vulnerable to physical damage - AIs have no special defense against this, so if their
Drive becomes exposed they are in real danger. Personality Drives are generally well protected by the
AI, and most AIs will get increasingly aggressive if they detect someone coming to interfere with it.
Physical attacks on their Personality Drives (which are Durability 4, Size 2) are considered attacks on an
inanimate object and the AI does not receive Defense.

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