Artificial intelligence is as engrained within galactic culture as much as other often for granted concepts such as currency or faster than light travel. AI comes in a multitude of different forms, from the simple, algorithmic computer that control star ships all the way to the smart and increasingly adaptable
Sirasion Wardroid, the concept of simulated intelligence has been, and continues to be at the forefront of galactic technological advancement for countless galactic civilizations.
AI Capabilities
Artificial Intelligence (AI for short - not to be confused with the moniker of
Alliance Intelligence ) comprises computer systems that use complex algorithms to mimic organic intelligence or to fulfil a role often filled by a living being. For example, a ships computer system that handles automatic course corrections around dangerous obstacles as well as making automatic decisions in regards to the ships systems independent of the pilot or crew would be constituted as an AI, while a simple 'autopilot' that keeps the ship on a straight course or flies the ship to a pre-set waypoint would not.
Droids
The term 'droid' is the term used the describe robotic automatons that are created to fulfil a specific, or multiple purposes in place of a human counterpart. Many cultures have their own word for such devices; Mechanoid, automaton, robot, to name but a few. Droid is the most universally approved term for such devices in the language of Galactic Common.
Droids come in all shapes and sizes which often reflect what they were designed for, which is also a fairly limitless category. Droids have been shown to be capable of fulfilling almost any role in the galaxy providing their manufacturing is of high enough quality. Due to their intentional creation, droids tend to excel at a singular task or a narrow number of tasks within the same subsect.
The way droids are built as well as their appearance can vary wildly from manufacturer to manufacturer and culture to culture. AI is not a unique concept to the major galactic powers, with many smaller, unheard of civilizations having discovered AI on their own and built it into mechanical constructs to carry out tasks. For example, a race that has four legs are likely to built their droids in their own image rather than the classical human silhouette.
The two arms, two legs and one head has become somewhat of a standard for most droid production as the majority of sentient galactic races seem to follow this evolutionary trend, it is also far easier and effective to translate into mechanical form than a Sirasion's tail for example.
How the Galaxy View Droids
Droids are viewed by the galaxy as tools. They are built to fulfil a task and are seldom rewarded for their efforts. Typically droids are purchased and traded as commodities and have no citizen rights in the majority of galactic cultures that use them. As a result, sentience in droids is often avoided due to potential contention with their masters. Droids are very much considered the cruelty free alternative to slave labour in most cultures.
The majority of galactic factions view droids as beings is fairly similar. All the major galactic factions see droids as tools built to fulfil a specific purpose. Some factions utilize droids more than others. The Sirasion Empire for example is a big utilizer of droids for not only mundane work but also as major weapons of war. The same goes for the Necrophyte Dynasty, who's armies of of cybernetic shock troopers make up a large part of their terrifying battle force. The Rada on the other hand seldom use droids at all, opting for more biological alternatives. While the Alliance and Skaroniens lay somewhere in the middle.
Sentience
AI computers have been shown to be capable of achieving self awareness and sentience, however such a result is often considered hard to achieve quickly as well as being an undesirable trait in something created to conduct mundane or difficult tasks usually fulfilled by an organic being. Certain AI is built with different intelligence characteristics depending on its role, some are required to learn more than others, so there for have more powerful memory banks that store learned information better than others. For example, a construction droid built for hauling heavy rocks would have the necessary equipment to measure the weight of rocks and the directive to move said rock to the position required, while a droid that handles hospitality has to react much quicker to differing circumstances with different guests having unique requirements and no two situations being completely identical, in its quest for peak efficiency the droid is going to learn the most effective methods from the least effective methods, this process will continue until a certain decision, backed up by all of its past experiences may make it question itself and why it is doing the job it is doing.
AI is very capable of learning its own personality through extended use, in some cases even being capable of learning the meaning and even acting on certain emotions. Many AIs do not handle this shift well and often suffer fatal software corruption as a result. In order to stop this process, AI systems typically have to be manually reset every so often to keep developing personalities at bay, bringing them back to their most basic of programming required to fulfil their given task. This is often referred to as a 'memory wipe' and in many cases is conducted automatically at regular intervals depending on the specific system.
In some cases where it is beneficial for AI systems to learn, such as in the case of certain droids, but sentience is wished to be avoided, the memory core or 'brain' can be run through a computer program to smooth out any errors and eliminate lines of code that could lead to potential sentience without removing knowledge gained. There are even entire galactic companies than specialise in the manual maintenance of AI systems. This process tends to get more difficult the more 'knowledge' an AI 'brain' has stored, while certain models of AI 'brains' are better at storing and processing information in this way, more basic models will only be able to go to a certain point before they cannot store more information without some form of error.
AI Intelligence Categories
The categorisation AI based on its intelligence and capabilities is by no means universally accepted across the galaxy, however many such conventions were agreed upon by the Sirasion Empire and Galactic Alliance during the signing and subsequent meetings of the Caldur Treaty in 2238 and as such have been adopted by the majority of he galactic populace. The classification goes as follows;
Category 1: Category 1 AI systems can barely be considered intelligent.
This category makes up the majority of basic computer systems that execute commands at the behest of a user and do not make and decisions for themselves.
Category 2: The second category of AI is not far removed from the first, however this category of AI can make some basic decisions for itself but set within a rigid programming guideline to the point that deviation from that programming will result in errors that may require an organic operator to solve. Basic labour droids fall into this category, as do many high level autopiloting systems.
Category 3: Cat3 AI is for systems that have to think for themselves, sometimes outside of their programming structure. For example, a Cat2 loading droid will pick up and move all the boxes from a pile and then wait for further instructions. A Cat3 loading droid could calculate the most efficient way to move the boxes and adapt to that automatically. Over all, Cat3 droids have a deeper programming level and more commands to fall back on to prevent errors. Generally however, Cat3 droids are incapable of learning independently and must be updated to attain newer information. Many base-line combat droids also fall into this catagory, Necrophyte Shock troopers being a more notable example.
Category 4: If Cat3 loading droids can adapt their movement of boxes automatically based on their predefined understanding of peak efficiency, a Cat4 loading droid could learn on its own the most effective way to move boxes from point A to B as well as understanding urgency and orders based on the emotional response from its master. Cat4 AI can learn to understand and process emotions as well as take complex orders. A category 4 AI can be given a very basic command such as 'Travel from planet X to Y' and will do the rest on its own, plan routs, organize transport and even fly the ship if it is equipped with the right programming.
Sirasion Wardroids, hyper advanced self-learning computers and Androids (droids made to closely resemble organic beings in appearance and behaviour) fall into this category. Due to the advanced learning capabilities of these AI, they are easily capable of developing personalities and in some cases even sentience if left un-checked for too long without a reformat.
Category 5: This category is reserved for those systems which have achieved full sentience. This is constituted by their original programming becoming so corrupt and over written that they are no longer capable of performing their original function or will outright refuse to do so. While category 4 systems can be aware that they exist as automatons created by organic beings, category 5 is for those systems which have grown contentious with their situation and believe they should be treated as an organic being and may even believe they themselves are an organic being. Category 5 systems may even form algorithms to mimic the feeling of emotion.
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