Artificial Intelligence

[GreaterDane]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

300 points should be enough if you are new to GURPS.

And if we're talking Mass Effect, then AIs can not be copied (or moved) to a different computer, under threat of having their personality change drastically due to no two quantum computers being exactly alike (or so the canon explanation goes, and given how good ME is overall, I accept it as granted).

Well not a direct clone, but taking some of the concepts from it. (And the awesome music)

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by GreaterDane

Yeah I've run into that with Shadowrun as well. How I was thinking it would work was doing ship-to-ship combat and they are attacked on more angles than one. I think how I want the AI to work is essentially an extra crew-man who can help out in various situations. I'll have to talk to the player again, but he seems to be down with playing the role of support.

For a list of stuff the crew might need doing, here's a list from Spaceships:

• Command Tasks - leadership and stuff; coordinating the rest of the ship crew.
• Engineering Tasks - making sure you can safely redline the ships thrusters, energy systems etc.
• Navigation Tasks - buffing the pilot; setting an FTL course.
• Sensor Tasks - detecting enemies; analyzing their weaknesses.
• Piloting Tasks - duh.
• Gunnery Tasks - ditto.
• Communications Tasks - jam or resist jams in comms; coordinate damage control teams, firefighters, boarders etc. (A bit close to Command in some aspects, IMHO.)
• Damage Control Tasks - patching up hull breaches, preventing the broken reactor from overloading, rescuing casualties.

An experienced ship crew should reasonably be able to fill at least some of these roles.

[Genesis]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

In that case apparently it's because Culture Minds want to stay Involved rather that sublimate permanently into Fun Space and need humans and drones to keep them grounded.

The culture also generally seems to have genuine respect for sentient beings - the Minds employ humans where humans can be employed because humans like being employed, and it's really no skin off their digital teeth to allow humans to do things that don't require a machine. The Minds also use humans as diplomats to races that distrust/fear/are unwilling to talk to sentient computers.

Less omnipotent AIs might be seriously hobbled in a variety of ways, as people have said. Just because the ship has a computer doesn't mean there aren't valves that need to be opened manually. Ships of that sort might be designed specifically to require a human crew, so that a malicious AI can't just run off willy-nilly with the passengers hostage in their own ship.