Inorganic Intelligences

"Inorganic intelligences" is an umbrella term for any entity whose decision-making is programmed in by human designers. There are three main types of inorganic intelligences, though the line between each group isn’t always clear due to the variety available.

Expert Systems

Example: The clunky machine with grabby hands that refolds all the clothes on the shelves.

These robots are designed to perform a specific repetitive task like stocking shelves or cleaning toilets. They make decisions regarding how to perform these tasks, but can’t go beyond this and crash or behave erratically if brought into unexpected environments. Expert systems come in a variety of appearances, most designed to best suit the equipment or materials they work with. A janitorial system may have a broom or mop built in, for example. They rarely mimic human forms.
On TL4 planets, many mid-to-high class stores and facilities employ a variety of expert systems. In lower-class areas, they may still be prohibitively expensive, or otherwise too appealing for others to steal.

Virtual Intelligences

Virtual intelligences, often abbreviated as VIs, vary widely depending on what they’re programmed for. Some are barely smarter than an expert system while others are walking supercomputers. Even the most advanced VIs are still confined to what their programming handles, however, and generally can’t learn new skills.
In many cases, a VI has no need to interact with the physical world. They analyze data or manage digital security systems, and thus reside entirely within the network. A representation in art or hologram may form the interface for their human operators. Other VIs have human-like bodies, called "shells", for jobs like child care or ship maintenance. Though their silhouette matches a human’s, visual examination shows signs of being manufactured. The skin color is off, the movements are stilted, and there are seams around joints.

Example: The "accountant" you've never met, but who sends reminder emails at the exact same time every week in weirdly precise language.

More expensive VI shells make these "defects" aesthetically appealing. Programmable lights, unique skin patterns and colors, and other modifications grant alien designs to the human creation. Designer VIs is among the fastest-growing industries today.

Did you know?

VIs installed in a shell can't be transferred into a new one later on. Their programming can’t adapt to a new physicality, so if a new shell is required, the VI must be wiped and reset.

Artificial Intelligences

Example: The main character from the hit 3117 film "Artificially in Love".

True AI are defined by their quantum identity cores. Many organizations are working to rediscover the art of creating True AI, lost since the Scream, but much of that research has paused since Perimeter's formation despite there being no official anti-AI stance. The Protectorate has only asserted pre-Scream restrictions requiring all AI to be braked, to severely limit the potential upper limit on their thinking.

Primers are articles covering base concepts that help bring context to other articles. Read the others here:

Further Reading