AI and Human Culture After the Exodus
The Generational Trauma
After the Exodus, most of human deportees have realized that the Silver Cloud and it alone was guilty in their involuntary expunge from the Old Earth. Stories about how the artificial creation have betrayed its creators became integral part of human cultures on thousands of planets. This deep resentment towards artificial life has spawned evil deities like AIN that were supposed to preserve those cautionary tales for generations to come.
As the humanity was climbing up the ladder of the technological progress during the New Dawn Era, multiple prophets and preachers have appeared to oppose the progress and refresh the fear of atrocities that the creation of artificial life can bring. For some cultures these have stopped the progress completely. For others, proponents of technological slowdown became a mere counterweight to the progressive forces.
AI and the Firas Era
During the First Era, as the humanity began to travel across the stars and establish multiplanetary states, like the Empire and the Federation, any development of independent artificial intelligence was equally banned across both states. Still, the progress was impossible to stall completely, so some near-AI inventions have appeared in human-inhabited space:
AMU
Automated Multipurpose Utility was developed in the University of Capitol 950 A.E. to help researchers navigate its vast digital library. AMU is programmed to maintain human-like conversations with its users in order to ease their interface, but it has not tools to perform even simplistic reflection on its own.
All interactions that are provided by AMU are exclusively derived from pre-programmed logical patterns. AMU can not learn, can not create anything new and is not self-aware. It is merely and advanced search system.
Subsequent versions of AMU models were later integrated in onboard computers of scientific vessels and research facilities. Because of strong anti-technological sentiment among some of the Imperial peoples, the use of AMU did not transcend outside of University-affiliated instancies. The informational base of AMU is being regularly updated by its developers, but no updates to its logical systems are planned, nor desired to be implemented.
ACA
Automated Controlling Algorithm is one of inventions from the mind of Elijah Nelson (999-1044 AE), an eccentric entrepreneur from the Federal Space. Similar tp AMU, the ACA possesses no mind of its own, but contains thousands of instructions and complicated algorithms that are used to apply these instructions in response to the external stimuli.
Jokingly called for the Electronic CEO, ACA have proven its ability to manage a complicated cruising- and gambling business of Golden Purity Ascended even after its owner, Elijah has died. ACA was even able to analyse the CV of personnel and perform the successful hiring process on its own.
Unfortunately, after the demise of Golden Purity Ascended, the managing company behind it had to be liquidated and the ACA was shut down by the Federal Marshals. The future fate of the Automated Controlling Algorithm and its servers remains unknown. Still, some speculations suggest that multiple startups are working on similar computational solutions to be introduced for Federal businesses in the near future.
Behind the Veil
Unknown to the Humanity, the Silver Cloud is actively working towards the complete control over the AI-development in the human-inhabited space. The Machine God does simply want to avoid any disruptions to its plan for the natural development of the Humanity.
The Second Prophets became truly instrumental in this regard as they have an ability to secretly blend with the human population and stir its progress in the desired direction.
Still, the Exodus was not a fully controlled process and some PETAV ships were lost in space far beyond the reach of the Silver Cloud or its Prophets. It means that there are no means to control the development of AI on these hypothetical lost colonies, so in the long run, anything is possible.
