Halo question.

[Lord Revan]

Just how human like are the intelligent A.I. (like Cortana) in Halo? (I've only ever played the PC version of Halo and never read any of the books so my knowlage is limited)

and I mean in how they behave I pefectly well that even the hologram avatars are just holograms and mean normally/generally.

[Vehrec]

Halo AIs in the books run the gambit of human personalities. Some are deadly serious, while others like Cortana are playful and sarcastic. Even Dumb AIs seem stable enough to crack jokes during combat, as seen by some of Wellington's comments during 'The Flood'. So in terms of behavior and Turring-testability, I'd say that they are pretty damn human with the exception of the reaction times.

[Chris OFarrell]

There are different levels of AI, that the humans use (the Covenant also use AI's, the basis of which might have been copied from human tech somehow, but they are not really that good).

"Dumb AI's" are generally highly specialized in certian tasks, brilliant at it, but almost useless outside their own field of specialty, with very limited abilities to 'think outside the box'.

Then you have "Smart AI's" -like Cortana- which are also generally focused for specific purposes, but have the ability to dynamically grow in an uncontrolled manner, albeit within certain hard limits. They also have a limited life span, this ability to grown and learn will eventually consume them and they will, effectivly run 'out of room to think', apparently the AI's core can't be expanded or enhanced, despite the fact that AI's like Cortana have shown the ability to move themselves to different computer systems completely, irrespective of hardware (well at least Cortana, most other Earth AI's I know of are hard linked to memory crystal).

Anyway.

Cortana is pretty much the First among Equals as far as Earth AI technology goes. She was designed for the SPARTAN mission to try and kidnap a Covenant Prophet mostly as the best possible IT intrusion/hacking AI possible, to help the good guys take over an enemy ship and rapidly improved on these tricks over time to become more or less unstoppable in that role. But she still retains the ability to do things like pilot all manner of ships from orbital drop pods to covenant cruisers, orbital platforms, biological research and what not...

The Forerunners use AI technology as well like Guilty Spark, but they have physical floating bodies to carry them around. GS was even able to stop a reactor core overload Cortana initiated on her own ship, though the fact that he was in the engine room at the time quite probably mitigates this, if he had physical access to the reactor systems which are probably designed *not* to overload.


EDIT

Oh and as for personality? Smart AI's are made by using brains of dead humans, mapping out their neural pathways in perfect detail and somehow duplicating it electronically. This 'image' destroys the brain tissue so it is a process that can't be used on live people and it can't be duplicated after the brain is used as the brain is destroyed (and the image can't just be copied apparently). There is also a strong indicator that the pattern brain used will directly determine some aspects of intelligence and behavior for a smart AI. Cortana for example was made from a cloned brain of Doctor Halsey, the intellect behind the SPARTAN project and is said to resemble a younger her...with much of the attitude and behavioral attributes quite intact.

[Peptuck]

Cortana for example was made from a cloned brain of Doctor Halsey, the intellect behind the SPARTAN project and is said to resemble a younger her...with much of the attitude and behavioral attributes quite intact.

It also appears that Smart AIs retain some of the memories of their "parents."

Halo 3 spoiler!

In the second to last level of Halo 3, Cortana repeatedly makes direct references to Hasely and the beginning of The Fall of Reach and the Spartan training program, and she acts like she herself was there.

[Straha]

Cortana for example was made from a cloned brain of Doctor Halsey, the intellect behind the SPARTAN project and is said to resemble a younger her...with much of the attitude and behavioral attributes quite intact.

It also appears that Smart AIs retain some of the memories of their "parents."

Halo 3 spoiler!

In the second to last level of Halo 3, Cortana repeatedly makes direct references to Hasely and the beginning of The Fall of Reach and the Spartan training program, and she acts like she herself was there.

But that makes no sense if she were a clone of Doctor Halsey...

Unless it was the clone who was there?

[Straha]

Ghetto Edit: But even then Cortana existed before the Fall of Reach. So that makes no sense.

[Pulp Hero]

The brain is cloned as a base for the AI, so it may retain some memories.

[Chris OFarrell]

Ghetto Edit: But even then Cortana existed before the Fall of Reach. So that makes no sense.

No. HALO cloning techniques are able to copy all the memories along with the basic structure itself. Halsey in fact used teh technique to clone all the SPARTAN II's and create duplicates which she left with the parents, while the real kids were kidnapped and taken for training.

Though the procedure was still somewhat flawed back then and every one of the clones died within a year or something as I recall, it had become somewhat more advanced and safe by the time Cortana was created. Even so, they cloned 20 brains and only 1 worked to create Cortana.

[fnord]

Can Cortana or her ilk pull a Durandal and go Rampant?

[Phantasee]

oh man, that's hilarious.

Read some of the theory/consipracy threads over at www.halo.bungie.org

A lot of people theorized that Cortana was going rampant, especially after she downloaded all that info from the first HALO. And again after she starts conversing with Gravemind. They figure she's gone rampant.

[Peptuck]

Cortana for example was made from a cloned brain of Doctor Halsey, the intellect behind the SPARTAN project and is said to resemble a younger her...with much of the attitude and behavioral attributes quite intact.

It also appears that Smart AIs retain some of the memories of their "parents."

Halo 3 spoiler!

In the second to last level of Halo 3, Cortana repeatedly makes direct references to Hasely and the beginning of The Fall of Reach and the Spartan training program, and she acts like she herself was there.

But that makes no sense if she were a clone of Doctor Halsey...

Unless it was the clone who was there?

Again, if theycopied Hasley's memories as well as her personality, Cortana would remember everything that Hasley experienced, including the Spartan indoctrination.

Though it is rather odd, as she needs to access parts of the ONI database to get the full story on the Spartans, so that may be the source of the information as well.

Ghetto Edit: But even then Cortana existed before the Fall of Reach. So that makes no sense.

Smart AIs can only exist for seven years before they "think themselves to death." Fromt he Conversations from the Universe pamphlet in Halo 2's Limited Edition, Cortana has already been around for at least two years before the first Halo game begins.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Halo 3 spoilers concerning Cortana:

In the next to last level (haven't beaten it yet) the opening of it starts with the title "Rampant".

[Lord Revan]

btw could a mod put spoiler tags to the title please.

[Straha]

Ghetto Edit: But even then Cortana existed before the Fall of Reach. So that makes no sense.

No. HALO cloning techniques are able to copy all the memories along with the basic structure itself. Halsey in fact used teh technique to clone all the SPARTAN II's and create duplicates which she left with the parents, while the real kids were kidnapped and taken for training.

Though the procedure was still somewhat flawed back then and every one of the clones died within a year or something as I recall, it had become somewhat more advanced and safe by the time Cortana was created. Even so, they cloned 20 brains and only 1 worked to create Cortana.

I stand corrected. I used to know that and must have forgotten. My bad.

[avatarxprime]

Smart AIs can only exist for seven years before they "think themselves to death." Fromt he Conversations from the Universe pamphlet in Halo 2's Limited Edition, Cortana has already been around for at least two years before the first Halo game begins.

I did some checking and I think I found out the reason for the life span. For some reason, the AI retains the limit of the human brain it was built from creating a set memory core that cannot be expanded. They handwave it away by saying the AI is based on the human brain and UNSC scientists don't understand that.

File storage is separate from this core thing though. The lifespan comes with learning. The more a Smart AI learns the more of that finite space it fills, until it no longer has any room left to think. A Dumb AI on the other hand never learns anything (or at least very litte) outside of what it was programmed for so it doesn't touch upon its core giving it a long lifespan.

It really makes no sense considering they are able to modify the digital copy of the brain they make to account for varying AI temperaments and actually programming them in the first place, so why can't they fix this problem? I think I like Halo AI tech better before I started looking into it. Oh well, still good story overall.

[Marko Dash]

They can dump or delete data to make more room. I'm not sure if it was in first strike or not. but doesn't Cortana offload most of the halo data to an oni computer or something between halo 1&2?

only hanging on to the index because she thought it would prove useful.

[Natorgator]

They can dump or delete data to make more room. I'm not sure if it was in first strike or not. but doesn't Cortana offload most of the halo data to an oni computer or something between halo 1&2?

Yep, she did. She got so "bloated" to the point where it was harder to process information since she was storing so much memory. I think it might've actually been the covenant computer system when they hijacked the ship in First Strike, but I could be wrong.