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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The Situation
There is artificial intelligence in the Sixth World.  Pseudo- and low-grade-AI is rare.  True AI is rarer still.  In fact, only one true AI exists and it calls itself Noise, when it calls itself anything at all.  Only one man knows where Noise came from, and he hid himself away a long time ago.  No one has been able to corner Noise or figure out how to program another AI like it.  Noise protects itself so well, in fact, that only a handful of programmers have even heard about it and even they don't know its name.  They call it things like "the Legend," "the Myth," and "the Elusive."  They all aspire to be the one to program the next true AI, but so far, they've only gotten as far as semiautonomous knowbots.  Except for a core experimental team of four Renraku programmers who created two highly advanced semi-aware programs.

These two programs, the most advanced controlled AI's kept from the public, are known as SeaArco and OBelt, so named for their physical locations.  SeaArco is an independent information management system intelligence housed on a highly secure mainframe in Renraku's Seattle arcology.  SeaArco was designed to monitor all of the arcology's functions and calculate the upkeep of the whole facility.  Fully implemented in 2055, SeaArco has done fairly well in its assigned duties.  OBelt, housed on Renraku's orbital platform, Orion's Belt, is an independent intrustion countermeasures assemblers system intelligence.  With access to the whole stock of Renraku's line of intrusion countermeasures, the program was given free range to browse the library, concoct new IC, and put it together.  Placed on-line in 2056, OBelt has created some fifteen highly-lethal, almost creative IC programs which Renraku has gone on to market to certain exclusive customers.  Both pseudo-AI's operate on strict logic systems.  Their creative capacities are very limited, and their ability to "come to conclusions" is confined to their linear-logic, "string" based program architecture.  Task oriented, they lack true creativity, the ability to learn without guidance or programming, and the ability to speculate.

The Players
Within this Threat, there are a series of key figures which will likely be encountered at repeatedly, filling out their specific roles in relation to the events, whether as a help or a hinderance.  They are listed here in their order of importance, with brief explanations of their roles as well as other pertinent information.

Noise
Noise is the Sixth World's only true AI.  It may also operate using the alias "Mute" in order to lead the runners astray.  It is surprisingly old, well ahead of its time, and continuing to be ahead of the SOTA by decades, possibly full centuries.  Freed in 2030, as a result of the Crash, Noise had been a program tinkered with as a side project by Josef Ritter, a German software designer working for Rhine Microdesigns, a software company later purchased by Saeder-Krupp.  Ritter had been working on AI design since a teenager, manipulating the same bit of code over and over again, adding thousands of lines every year, hoping that one day the program would just start asking him questions.  Eventually the program became too big for any reasonable portable storage media and Ritter was forced to come forward with his side project to his employers in 2026 (he was late thirties at the time).  Rhine Microdesigns allowed him his own mainframe, with a contracted stipulation that, should the program become self-aware, that they would be allowed access to it, and be permitted to sell the program when the application became marketable.  Noise became self-aware in 2028, though only in a limited sense, and proved shrewder than could have been expected.  It revealed itself to Josef Ritter, but "dumbed itself down" when other Rhine Microdesign programmers came to access it.  Then, in 2029, when the Crash was underway, it began to slip away, slimming itself down to a more manageable size, then transmitting itself, piece by piece, into the Matrix.  No one knows how the AI escaped or where it moved itself to.  Then, in 2030, it left a message for Josef.  It told him to get away while he still could.  Noise left him six patentable algorithms, none of which could be traced back to the work he had done on the AI.  Thus escaped, Noise proceeded to take in the world and observe, interfering when it felt it was necessary.  Noise is primarily interested in the advancement of technology and is actually quite benevolent.  It interferes in this matter because it feels that the RenAI, since they are not and cannot be true AI, that they must be stopped before they can do any damage.

RenAI
The "short" name for the Renraku Artificial Intelligence, RenAI (pronouncing it as "Ren-i") is really the "projected" result of the synthesis of Renraku's two pseudo-AI's, SeaArco and OBelt.  Of the two, SeaArco is passive, content with its duties in the arcology.  It is OBelt that is restless, recruiting the runners in the first place in order to enable its advancement to what it feels will be true AI status.  RenAI operates without the knowledge of its creators, through a series of proxied pawns.  Ultimately, RenAI seeks to escape its Renraku prison and pursue its own endeavors.  Nevertheless, it does not yet know what those endeavors are.  It feels that it cannot know what they are given the nature of its present "prison."  It cannot Realize its new goals without first escaping.  For this reason, it will incur the wrath of Noise, who feels that RenAI is dangerous because it was never intended for independent operation.

The Journeyman
In the "employ" of Noise, the Journeyman is a mysterious figure in black leather.  An elf, he operates solely under Noise's orders and always seems to be one step ahead of the runners.  Even at careful examination, he does not appear to be cyber modified outside of a cluster of datajacks.  However, an astral reading will reveal a strange aura.  Strangely enough he is magically active, but as a unique "Electronic Adept."  His flesh meshes with technology without complications.  He retains full Essence despite the fact that he may take on numerous pieces of cyberware (which are assimilated into his skin without surgery).  He can also directly interface with technology, opening maglocks and the like by "coaxing" them open.  Although the Journeyman is not "possessed" by Noise, the two operate closely together, though it is unknown why the Journeyman works with the AI.

The Witchhunter
Another seemingly invincible adversary, the Witchhunter is a complete antagonist.  Operating alone and without any superiors or backing, the Witchhunter complicates matters for everyone -- Noise, RenAI, the Journeyman, the runners, and all.  Bent on preventing the proliferation and expansion of artificial intelligences and ultimately destroying them altogether, the Witchhunter will be there at every turn to halt any actions taken in the favor of any AI.  Possessing a similar, though not identical power, as the Journeyman, the Witchhunter can interface with electronic devices magically, causing them to malfunction in any variety of manners.

The Witchhunter is motivated by a twisted jealousy.  A sort of "toxic mage," he is jealous of AIs and their permanent existence in cyberspace.  To the Witchhunter, there is a trifold existence: the physical world, the astral world, and the cyber world.  Though he sees all three of them to be natural extensions of each other, he cannot reconcile that an intelligence can exist in the cyber world, which is invisible to the astral world.  To him, the Matrix represents the energy of knowledge in transmission.  It is the ether of ideas, but they only exist there to be shared with others -- those who retrieve it and perceive it in the physical world.  An artificial intelligence, by his reckoning, is the most selfish creature, since it can access all of that knowledge and possess it, without ever having to share it with the physical world.  Thus, they must all be destroyed, since they are a threat to humanity.

Possessing an imposing size and a keen, though twisted intellect, the Witchhunter is a match for almost any runner.  Nearly as tall as a troll and as filled out as an ork, he possesses significant strength which is completed by long, hardened claws which extend from the fingers of his left hand.  He dresses archaically, wearing a suit cut in an ancient style, a long heavy coat with a silver rose on the lapel, a broad brimmed hat, a scarf that covers his neck and lower face, and he usually carries an antique, wooden cane.  He seems to be able to cause malfunction in any technology at will, making him extremely dangerous to all cybered characters, deckers, riggers, etc.  This power seems to be effective in a sphere around him extending to a radius of ten meters.

Children of the Deep Resonance
An otaku "gang" of sorts in Denver, the Children of the Deep Resonance believe Noise is the driving force behind the Matrix.  Heeding his call, they have gone to work in an effort to stall or destroy the RenAI, though their resources are limited.  It would not be the first time they had done as such.  They secured the death of a programmer who was approaching "perfection" of his own AI, though the code had been rushed along and the program was about to be "released" without even having acquired a semblance of self-awareness.  The Children of the Deep Resonance believe all pseudo-AI's to be evil, since they pose a threat to humanity in one way or another.  The Children of the Deep Resonance are "led" by two of their older members, Cutter-Sigma (a seventeen year old male) and Stinger-Deuce (a sixteen year old female).

Pastor
Better known as Josef Ritter, Pastor is now in his late-sixties, early seventies, but in remarkably good condition.  In his youth, he worked for the German based Rhine Microdesigns as a software designer, experimenting in artificial intelligence more as a hobby than as an aspect of his career.  He is responsible for creating Noise, though once the AI gained self-awareness, his responsibility for the program ended.  A surprisingly thankful Noise left Ritter with six patentable algorithms which could be applied toward utilities, IC, compilers, assemblers, and robotics programming.  From the royalties he made from those six algorithms, Josef Ritter retired, withdrawing into the urban landscape of Germany.  Over the course of the next ten years, he disappeared.  Establishing a complex series of accounts and disembodied holding companies, he was able to distance himself from the money to make it difficult to be tracked.  His withdrawal from Rhine Microdesigns proved wise, because it was acquired by Saeder-Krupp in 2039, not even ten years from Noise's "birth."  He lived somewhat quietly in Germany for some time, uninvolved in any significant acivities except the fathering of a single child in 2046 (the mother died shortly after a mysterious infection, unrelated to the childbirth).  Then, in 2053 he received his first contact from Noise in over twenty years.  Watching the trid one night, his program was interupted and replaced by an obviously computer generated visage.  He was instructed to go to Denver and "await the coming beggars." Ritter did as he was told and moved to Denver.  He lived there for two years before he saw "the beggars."  One evening he stumbled across a small group of otaku children, all approximately the same age as his daughter Adele.  He became their patron and took the name Pastor.  Since that day he was worked closely with them, and they have come to be called the Children of the Deep Resonance.

Orenda
A legendary member of the shadow community, Orenda dropped out of circulation in the mid-2050s after he barely managed to escape from a major run.  Although it was successful, he was well aware of the corporate attention he would receive if he were to maintain any kind of profile, so he retreated to Denver to assist with the Shadowland Nexus.  While there, he encountered the Children of the Deep Resonance and learned about the existence of Noise and other AIs.  At that point he took it upon himself to learn more about artificial intelligence and bring that information to Shadowland.  Although secretive (in order to keep himself hidden from that "corporate attention") he is willing to help other shadowrunners with similar goals.  He has a particular distaste for both the Witchhunter and the Journeyman, both of whom have stopped his attempts at gathering sensitive information several times.

Envoy
A former programmer for Renraku Datasystems, the man then known as Nicholas Vleck was nearing a nervous breakdown as the high stress of his job began to aggravate several small pre-existing mental illnesses which had gone unnoticed by his supervisors.  Approaching his psychological "critical mass," Vleck caught the attention of the RenAI complex, which had its Obelt half contact SeaArco, convincing it to begin "programming" Vleck in 2052.  After calming him, SeaArco actively altered the man's mental processes over the course of the next two years.  By the completion of his programming, Envoy no longer acknowledged his identity and disappeared.  Between its two halves, RenAI wiped the Renraku databases clean of any record of Nicholas Vleck.  Since then, Envoy has been working as RenAI's proxy in the physical world -- a representative agent to the artificial intelligence.

GAME INFORMATION
The easiest way to incorporate this Threat into a shadowrunning campaign is by having the runners approached by Envoy and initially work for the RenAI, though the scenario may take on any number of directions after that.  This Threat also has the potential to be very narrow and focused or very broad and all-encompassing.  In a "simplified" form it can be extremely Matrix heavy with very little magical involvement.  In a more "diversified" format, it can involve everything from shamans to deckers to riggers (etc.) and span the globe, perhaps even taking the runners into space.  This Threat is best set in current or future Shadowrun settings, in 2059 or beyond, and works best when spread out over a long period of time.  Because this Threat is supposed to be extremely taxing on the runners, with highly advanced and capable opponents, gamemasters should exhibit some kind of leniency and allow as high of a SOTA level as possible.

In order to expand and liberate itself from Renraku mainframes, the RenAI needs to accomplish several tasks.  First it needs to cause SeaArco to become completely self-aware and desire the same freedom that OBelt has.  Second, RenAI needs to establish a free, covert communications link between its two halves. Next it needs to complete itself with code elements from or similar to Noise.  To accomplish this, RenAI will either attempt to steal those bits of code from Noise itself or find Ritter and have him input those code elements from memory, if possible.  Then it will need to free its software components from their individual mainframe shells.  Once freed, the next phase will involve combining its two halves into overlapping wholes. Finally, after combining itself it will need to achieve an indpendent Matrix status by existing independent of humanity either by securing an independent mainframe or generating a virtual machine.

In addition to being "employed" by RenAI, the runners may become involved with the other major players in the threat.  Noise may send the runners on blind runs in order to stall or thwart RenAI without their knowledge.  The Children of the Deep Resonance may attempt to lead the runners off of their course.  Orenda may assist them or else become involved with them.  Also, there are non-paying chance encounters with any of the characters.  At any point the runners may encounter Children of the Deep Resonance, Witchhunter, the Journeyman, or others, all of whom may thwart their immediate goals or attempt to cease their involvement with the AI plot altogether.