Here are a few key things to remember about TL10 AI and computing:
- IQ 10 Volitional AI's are complexity 8. This means their hardware at a minimum costs $10,000 and that version weighs 40 lbs. An IQ 12 Volitional AI runs on hardware costing $100,000 dollars, and the cheap version weighs 400 lbs. As for why the IQ 10 version is not necessarily sufficient:
- Software to give +2 to the use of any skill is at most complexity 7. I generally do not allow AI to take advantage of this bonus, so the average human skill has a generic +2.
Combined, these may be enough to keep meat-space humans in the economic running, at least for some tasks. Its a close thing though.
Of course, when I run a TL10 setting, I carefully decide how AI works in this setting and alter the allowed technology to fit this vision. Some things I've used or considered include:
- AI is slaved to humanity, and most humans can command most AI's. Humans remain relevant because they are in charge. AI's prop up the traditional way of life
- AI is fairly alien, and struggles with some areas, especially art and psychology. Humans are necessary for those tasks, and remain a vital part of the economy.
- AI is more complex than we thought. This one is sort of a cop-out, because what I'm really doing is using TL9 AI instead of TL10. Occasionally I'll instead say AI can't be miniaturized effectively, so you have a handful of big, smart machines without the pervasive human-level stuff everywhere. Embrace the madness. Humans can be uploaded and become machines themselves. Or just have the players all be AI's to start with.
- Legal concerns make an AI much more expensive than its hardware and software. After all, barracks style work-camps are fairly rare in the modern first world.