Synthetic intelligence is the generic term for advanced general artificial intelligence which meets or exceeds (at least in some respects) that of natural sophonts such as humans or biran.

The creation of sentient synthetic intelligences, in contrast to expert systems, has been comparatively limited in the twelve worlds. The development of such systems has met with success in two ways: through the emulation of meticulously scanned organic brains, and through the creation of detailed simulations created to favour the evolutionary emergence of general intelligence. However, both methods have drawbacks sufficient that synthetic intelligences have had only an apparently modest impact on society despite centuries of development.

Uploaded Intelligences

Uploaded intelligences are created by creating a simulation of the brain of an organic sophont organism, or copying an existing successful simulation. On the Twelve Worlds, this method has been the most popular, with about 85% of SIs active today having been produced in this way. To date, all scanning at sufficient resolution for the creation of an uploaded intelligence has been destructive in nature, i.e. the scanning process kills the original. The scan process is not highly reliable, and accordingly, the process is legally restricted to the terminally ill in many jurisdictions. Uploads do not have perfect fidelity; a useful result occurs about 60% of the time, with fully satisfactory fidelity about 40% of the time. Candidates for upload must be free of many kinds of brain disease (advanced dementia.) The scanning process is very expensive and uses custom-made instrumentation, of which only a few exist. The best scanner implementation, on Heidelberg, uses Imperial technology adapted for the purpose by later engineers.

Evolved Intelligences

Evolved intelligences are created by designing a detailed simulation of organisms subject to mutation and engineered selectional pressures designed to favour the emergence of general intelligence. This method is extremely computationally intensive, but relatively free of legal restrictions in most places. (If a synthetic intelligence is produced de novo in this way, its rights must typically be established by legal processes; controversy concerning the termination of "unsuccessful" evolved intelligences is ongoing, unlike the extensive case law involving partially-successful uploads.)

It has proven difficult to select for consciousness and many other elements of human (or biran) psychology. (By contrast, the technique has been quite successful for developing many kinds of useful artificial intelligences of considerable complexity, but without self-awareness.) However, occasional successes have been reported. The degree of success reported is often controversial, as the cognitive processes and behaviour of the evolved intelligences may be substantially different from known organic sophonts.

Legal Considerations

In the Allied Worlds, synthetic intelligences are recognized as natural persons, and possess all the civil rights of any other citizen. Courts have forbidden them from being duplicated without their consent, though when duplicates are made illicitly, the duplicates have been afforded the same rights and protections as their parents.