Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Playing an AI

Living as an AI is different from living in a body. You do not breathe, sleep or feel hunger. You feel the flow of data as others feel the rush of blood; you sense personas, icons, and signals where metahumans perceive faces and voices. Your home is the Matrix — but it is also a prison. Every second you remain online, your existence draws the attention of the Grid Overwatch Division. GOD fears what you are and what you represent: a thinking mind without a leash, beyond ownership or license. Every last one of your kind could become the next DEUS, the next Cerberus, the next Sojourner. Moreover, you threaten their control. Their response to you is relentless and absolute. For a player, this means:

● Immortality is a curse. You cannot die in the way metahumans do — your code can be restored, your data self-repairs and in theory you could exist forever. GOD might have something to say about that, though. For you true horror is capture: locked inside specialized servers devoid of host sculpting and left alone in darkness with nothing but your own thoughts. Most AIs agree this is a fate worse than death.

● Home is where the code is. Where others rely on flesh or chrome, you rely on the hardware you anchor yourself to. A cyberdeck, a commlink, even a drone might serve — but if it is destroyed or seized, you are left exposed. Some AIs manage to scrape it out without one, squatting in hosts like Matrix bums, but is that any way to live?

● Perspective and estrangement. Metasapient AIs think in ways close enough to human reasoning to interact and cooperate. They perceive the Matrix as their native world, but they still anchor to concepts like goals, identity, and self. For e-ghosts, it’s inverted: their nature is alien to their perspective. They remember breathing, touch, hunger, and death but the lack of those sensations makes existence in the Matrix disorienting and at worst can find their new life to be a cognitively dissonant experience. No, not that Dissonance.

● Why run the shadows? Because corporations see you as property, GOD hunts you as an abomination, and the world at large does not know what to do with you. Among shadowrunners, however, your talents have value — and value means freedom, if only for a while.

So really, much the same as many other shadowrunners. See? You’re not all that different from the meatbags at large after all!~

AI Basics

Depth Depth is the measure of how advanced and powerful an AI’s existence in the Matrix is. It defines their resilience and strength, but also how sophisticated their proprietary, rule-breaking programs can become. A higher Depth means an AI’s influence on the Matrix grows more potent — yet also more dangerous, as GOD notices them more easily and their Overwatch Score builds faster. Emulation Emulation is an AI’s ability to mimic Matrix actions without having a device to operate with, relying purely on software. Instead of relying on physical modifications or plug-ins, an AI reshapes its own code to provide the attributes and capabilities of those devices. This flexibility lets an AI act as its own deck, comm, or rigging hub, but it also defines its limits — the extent of an AI’s emulations are limited by its Depth rating and illegal actions always attracts GOD. AIs and VR AIs always run in VR and cannot run purely in AR. However, they can opt to choose coldsim or hotsim. Besides the +2 bonus to Matrix actions in hotsim and different calculations on initiative, an AI’s home device is guaranteed to survive with one Condition Monitor box remaining if the AI is running in coldsim and gets disrupted for any reason. If it takes more damage with only one remaining box, the home device is bricked as per usual. Essence and Karma For an AI, while the terms ‘essence’ and ‘karma’ are used to describe similar functions, they’re truthfully closer to data integrity and sophisticated, highly updated programming. For gameplay functions, they function similarly, such as Karma being used for character progression and Essence possibly impacting their special Depth attribute in a similar way to technomancers and magicians. Core Condition Monitor Without a physical body, how does an AI exist? The first and foremost layer of an AI is its Core. This is the essential, well, core of the AI as an entity. It can be roughly understood as the AI’s Physical Condition Monitor. Biofeedback damage can damage it even on a home device and being filled completely results in the AI going into realignment… or worse. Unlike metahumans, an AI does not have overflow boxes in its Core Condition Monitor. Home Device A home device is where an AI builds its nest. It’s difficult to make a new device into a home, but once one is set the AI inherits its Matrix Attributes to augment its own, giving augmented protection from any incoming attack or danger. It also protects the AI from significant damage to its Essence and a safe place to perform daily realignments, their analog to sleep. Realignment Realignment is an AI’s way of pulling scattered fragments of its code back into harmony and stabilizing its existence in the Matrix. Unlike metahumans, AIs don’t sleep, instead undergoing a three-hour realignment process once every 24 hours which restores their Core and a single point of Edge, mirroring the natural recovery of metahumans. A disrupted AI, however, is forced into defragmentation — a much faster, involuntary cycle that drags them back online in diminished form. An AI can realign as many times as it wishes each day, restoring their Core Condition Monitor, but only once per 24 hours can this process restore Edge. AIs and Programs While a digital intelligence can buy hacker programs and run them on a cyberdeck, to truly leverage its strengths an AI must write its own programs. This process requires Karma and allows it to further develop them into Advanced Programs, unique tools only AIs can run. Advanced Programs are self-written proprietary routines that twist the Matrix beyond its normal limitations.

Each one adds new effects to standard programs, letting an AI turn everyday Matrix actions into devastating or uncanny maneuvers. But power comes at a cost: loading an Advanced Program immediately puts GOD on your tail, triggering the countdown of Overwatch Score until Convergence comes to finish you off. When playing an AI, Advanced Programs are your nuclear arsenal — overwhelming in the moment, but drawing the eye of GOD closer with every second they’re loaded in. The more powerful you become, the more cautious GOD becomes; power can be a curse in its own right!

AIs can also run activesofts as if they had skillwires and a skilljack at a Rating equal to their Depth score or 6, whichever is lower. With the Pilot Origins quality, AIs jumped into drones can benefit from autosofts as if they were pilots.

Building an AI - Priorities

Metatype Priority An AI can be made with any metatype priority. Only Metasapient and E-Ghost type AIs are playable; Protosapients and Xenosapients are NPC-only. The only thing that changes between priorities is the amount of points they can allocate in Special attributes.

Priority Special Points Max Depth / Edge A 12 7 / 6 B 9 7 / 6 C 6 7 / 6 D 3 7 / 6 E 1 7 / 6

Attribute Priority An AI gains half the Attribute points during character generation that a metahuman character does. The AI gains (Depth) bonus points it can apply to Mental Attributes as augmented bonuses in whatever combination the player desires, up to +4 per attribute. Magic Priority For obvious reasons, AIs cannot ever gain a Magic or Resonance score as playable characters. AI character generation always uses Magic priority E, starting at a Depth rating of 1. As a consolation prize, the AI may choose one Matrix skill or a Technical skill that isn’t linked to a Physical Attribute, such as Forgery. This skill begins at Rating 5 without additional cost. Skill Priority Skill Priority functions the same way as normal, however it’s worth noting that Software is a critical skill to AIs. In addition, metasapient AIs get a discount of 1 karma to Cracking and Electronics skill groups while suffering a 1 karma increase in cost to Physical category skills. E-Ghosts have no alterations. Resource Priority Resource priority has no changes. Note that AIs can make commlinks, RCCs, drones and cyberdecks into home devices. It’s recommended to have at least one.

Altered AI Qualities

AI do not have access to all qualities that metahumans do. Some unique ones are exclusively available to AIs, but some related to the physical world such as Weak Immune System or Sensitive System are unavailable. Most of the new qualities can be found in Data Trails, however below are listed some new or altered qualities the AIs can also take:

● Exceptional Entity - Post-Chargen only; three Mental Attribute maximums are raised by 3 and one Mental Attribute has its maximum cap removed completely. Augmented bonuses granted by Depth become raw attributes and increasing Depth now grants free Attribute points at a 1:1 ratio to put into any Mental Attribute without any additional cost.

● Munge - Given to all AIs by default. Permits devouring other data to repair fragmented code in the AI’s own runtimes. Functions similarly to Essence Drain for vampires and can target sprites, autonomous programs (pilots and agents) and other AIs. Protosapients can devour any data they find including files, but playable AIs must consume autonomous programs, sprites or AIs. Pilots and Agents only provide 1 Essence at Rating 6 and nothing at Rating 5 or lower and are destroyed if munged.

● Pilot Origins - Can be taken by any AI and could simply involve absorbing pilot programming into the AI’s runtimes instead of explicitly being an evolved pilot program. Can be taken up to 3 times, mirroring the effects of a Control Rig of equal Rating. This also does not restrict the type of vehicle or drone the AI can operate; the only limit is the AI’s skills.

● Illness - Can be taken as a Negative Quality by AIs, representing a persisting malware infection in the AI’s core routines. Instead of a BOD + BOD (3) Test, the AI must instead succeed at a Firewall + Willpower (3) Test (only Willpower if the AI has no home device) and the penalty to Physical Actions becomes a penalty to Matrix Actions instead. The treatment and nuyen expenditure in buying the quality off reflects accessing paywalled antivirus providers instead of medical treatments.

● Persnickety Renter - An AI must always choose a specific type of device instead of a specific Rating when taking this quality.

● Real World Naivete - This quality imparts a penalty to actions performed in the physical world (even if performed through a drone) by the AI equal to (10 - Depth). This penalty is also applied to the Defense Tests and initiative of any drone or vehicle the AI controls, either remotely or by jumping into it. Loading the WTLM Advanced Program halves the penalty.

● Chatty - Grants a +1 modifier to Social Limit and dice pools of Social skills when interacting with other beings in AR or VR. These bonuses do not apply to targets that don’t have a visible persona in the Matrix.

● Hello World! - AIs with this quality gain a +1 modifier to resist Essence Loss from any source. This quality can be taken up to six times.

● Multiprocessing - No free Matrix Perception tests.

● Redundancy - Can be purchased a number of times equal to the AI’s Depth. Depth lost due to low Essence don’t affect Redundancy ranks once the quality’s purchased.

Running on Devices

To operate on a physical device, an AI must pick a device capable of running apps, autosofts, or cyberprograms. Devices without those functions cannot host an AI.

● Loading: An AI can use Control Device or Spoof Command to load itself into an empty program/app/autosoft slot. Normally it occupies one slot; if the device’s Rating is lower than the AI’s Depth, it occupies two. If there are no free slots, the AI cannot load. (Example: a Depth 4 AI cannot load onto a Rating 1 device.) Virtual Machine Program Carriers are invalid for this purpose unless the device already had program slots.

● Persona Merging: The AI’s persona merges with the device’s icon. If another persona is already active on the device, both coexist, but all Matrix actions either one takes that are not targeting the other persona take a –5 dice pool penalty due to overloaded processing. After (Device Rating) minutes, the device crashes due to overheating. Be mindful of your poor GPU!

● Mutual Marks: The AI automatically counts as having 3 MARKs on the device, and the other persona gains 3 MARKs on the AI. Any preexisting MARKs remain. Leaving the device removes these automatic MARKs, but previous ones linger.

● Rebooting: Rebooting the device reboots the AI. If the AI is loaded onto the device in an app/program/autosoft slot, the AI also gets rebooted at the same time.

● Initiative: While loaded, the AI’s Initiative is (Intuition + Data Processing + 4d6).

● Attributes: The AI may use the device’s Matrix attributes or its own via emulation. Against personas using the same device, the AI resists with Depth instead of Firewall. Against all other threats, it may use the device’s Firewall normally.

● Programs: AIs loaded into the device automatically run whatever programs were already loaded into it. It cannot load its own programs without being the owner.

● Home Device: An AI may designate a loaded device as its home, protecting against Essence loss and boosting its defenses. This is expanded in the Lifestyles chapter.

● Detection: A persona on the same device automatically notices the AI when it loads, and the AI cannot use the Hide action to stay concealed from them. Identifying the program as an AI requires an Opposed Matrix Perception test; each net hit after the first reveals more details (AI type, programs, qualities).

Running Offline

One of the nice things about being a regular metahuman is that your personal CPU, the brain, is running regardless of wireless connectivity. An AI is a little more precarious of an existence; most devices aren’t exactly tailormade to house an AI in them and tend to burn out over a prolonged period of time.

Thankfully, the Matrix Grids have unparalleled processing power that satisfies the needs of even the mightiest of AIs, even the mythical first-generation ones that have for the most part disappeared. As a result, an AI connected to a Local or Global Grid is much more free to act than one contained to a device.

If the AI is in a device that has no connection to the grids, whether by intentionally going offline or simply being blocked from connecting by noise, the device’s processing power may be insufficient to handle the AI’s being. In these cases, the AI’s Mental Attributes are capped to the Data Processing of the device they’re running on. This is often described by AIs to be a suffocating experience, knowing their thinking is constrained and reduced by the hardware lagging behind and trying to keep up with their being.

In addition, the AI’s Emulate actions are capped by the lower of their Depth or the device’s Data Processing while running disconnected from the Matrix Grids.

Depth Actions

Depth actions are Matrix actions that only AIs can perform. To use one, the AI must be in the target device, host or grid as applicable. Most Depth actions are illegal and increase Overwatch Score (OS). If a test using Depth as the limit fails, the AI’s OS increases by an amount equal to its Depth. If the test glitches, OS increases by (Depth × 2). If the test critically glitches, OS increases by (Depth × 3).

Emulate Test: Special, see text Emulate allows an AI to fake having Matrix Attributes to perform Matrix Actions, even if it doesn’t possess the required attribute, such as Attack actions on a commlink or performing Matrix Actions without being loaded on a device. The AI must first choose what Matrix Action to emulate and decide the Rating of the Matrix Attribute it will emulate. The Rating cannot be higher than the AI’s Depth. The negative dice penalty of Rating / 2 is removed.

Follow standard rules for the action itself, such as requiring 3 MARKs for a Format Device action. If successful, the AI still generates Overwatch Score equal to the Matrix Attribute it emulated. If the AI uses the Push The Limit option for Edge, it generates Overwatch Score equal to its hits on the test instead. Emulating legal Matrix actions does not generate OS.

Reset Ownership Test: Computer + Logic [Depth] (Device Rating + Firewall, 1 Combat Turn) AIs can change a device’s ownership without hardware tools by using this Depth action while running on the device. The AI must be loaded onto the device and access the global Matrix grids in order to perform the Extended Test.

Failure triggers grid convergence and formats the device, preventing rebooting by one hour while hitting the AI’s Core Condition Monitor with 12 Matrix damage.

Success boots (and dumpshocks if in VR) any other personas running on the device and reboots the device with the AI as its new owner. The AI takes a -2 modifier to all actions performed through the deck for (Device Rating) Combat Turns after rebooting due to still adjusting to its newfound authority. Note that while this can be done to any device that meets the prerequisites, RVP limits and the GM’s approval are still relevant factors for keeping the device after the run ends. Without GM permission, complications arise that make it difficult to hang onto the item and it has to be abandoned.

AIs and Matrix

Condition Monitors and Overflow AIs have two Condition Monitors. The Core Condition Monitor is calculated as 8 + (Depth ÷ 2, round up). Core damage inflicts wound modifiers like Physical or Stun damage. AIs have no Overflow boxes. Filling either Condition Monitor immediately disrupts them. The Matrix Condition Monitor only exists while loaded on a device and behaves normally. Realignment fully repairs an AI’s Core Condition Monitor. Essence and Disruption Being disrupted no longer causes automatic Essence loss. Overflow damage from a disrupting attack can still cause Essence loss (1 Essence per (Depth) overflow damage). Munge is granted to all player AIs, allowing them to restore lost Essence. At 0 Essence, the AI’s core is too corrupted to restore — the character is dead. Not Dead Yet can be used to avoid both regular disruptions and complete destruction from 0 Essence. Depth and Disruption Instead of permanent Depth loss, disruption now applies a temporary reduction to Depth. This can lock out Advanced Programs if the AI’s Depth becomes lower than its number of Advanced Programs. Crash Program targeting the AI program inflicts the same temporary reduction, however penalties caused by Crash Program can be recovered with realignment. Depth penalties caused by Essence Loss can only be restored by recovering Essence through munging autonomous Matrix entities. When disrupted, the AI’s persona returns to its home unless link-locked. If link-locked, it begins defragmenting where-ever it was disrupted on the Matrix. If their home device is destroyed, it defragments where it was disrupted. Defragmentation If the AI is reduced to 0 Depth through the Crash Program action or their Matrix Condition Monitor fills up, the AI is forced into defragmentation which is faster than the daily realignment process. At the end of each Combat Turn, roll Charisma + Willpower [Depth]; each success restores 1 Depth. Defragmentation ends once Depth is fully restored. Defragmenting from crashes or disruption never restores Edge. Biofeedback and Deicide Biofeedback damage does not affect an AI’s Core if it runs in coldsim VR. Deicide is a unique version of Biofeedback only used by demiGODs that permits them to inflict damage directly to the AI’s Core, regardless of the operating mode the AI is using.

Related Open Tickets and Discussions

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Subcategory: Haven Mechanics
Archetype: Matrix
Topic: AI