Claire Ortiz

Claire Ortiz is a character in Tom Clancy's The Division 2. She and her husband, Alexander, founded Ortiz Robotics, where they worked with DARPA in developing cutting-edge military hardware and AI for the U.S Government and their corporate interests. She's also the brainchild behind ANNA and the Descent Combat Simulation Program.
Her time working in Ortiz Robotics and her partnership with Calvin McManus and Natalya Sokolova forms the basis of Descent comms throughout Year 5.
== Biography ==
Not much is known about Claire's upbringing or studies. But what from can be inferred from comms recovered from the NSA servers in the Descent simulation, Claire and Alex met, got married, and later established their own company, Ortiz Robotics, with a focus on engineering and robotics design. 
During the early days of the company, Claire designed ANNA as an in-house assistant AI for the company. While Alexander liked it, he was apprehensive about the human-like behavior that ANNA displayed. Over time, the company has been contracted by the U.S government to help develop cutting-edge military hardware with the help of DARPA. At some point, Claire and Alex pitched ANNA to two interested parties: Calvin McManus and Natalya Sokolova. However, neither of them favored the AI. So, Claire and her husband worked on two off-shoots: ISAC for Cal to be used in the NSA (National Security Agency) and his newly-minted Strategic Homeland Division. DIAMOND as a critical backbone system for Natalya's Black Tusk.
At one point, Claire and Alex was requested by Calvin McManus to create a unique Smart Watch that allows Cal access to all three AI systems - ANNA, ISAC, and DIAMOND. While they designed the backdoor protocol necessary to make it happen, Claire was concerned about the security risks. 
Claire was involved when Vivian Conley, who worked in Ortiz Robotics briefly as a contractor, presented several design proposals based on incendiary munitions. Those proposals were refused due to impracticality and ethical concerns, which led to Vivian being dismissed when her contract ended. But because Ortiz Robotics had intellectual rights to Conley's work, her design ideas were used without credit like the Dragonbreath/Incendiary Turret and the Ortiz: .
Claire designed to have ANNA as the handler for the Warhounds, however that was shut down when Nat demanded no talking AI. Claire was also involved with Alex in mobility experiments for the Warhounds, including the ability to run. However, the experiments were a total failure, forcing Natalya to add additional funding to redesign her Warhounds. During the redesign, Claire added SHD Tech integration to allow Warhounds be smarter, though she kept it secret from Nat by telling her its pulse mapping. When Cal shut down Alex's proposal to have warhounds inserted with embedded Division agents, Claire asked him if he needed his agents to take control of Natalya's Warhounds if necessary, Cal answered by only allowing his agents that have classified clearance.
Given the fact that many of the projects Ortiz Robotics have developed were to be used for SHD agents from different walks of life, Claire worked on an AR combat simulation program to test an operator's effectiveness in combat. She also developed suits that can assess an operator's mental and physical effectiveness as well as allowing them to feel pain while participating in the program. In Claire's perspective, she sees operators in a combat situation can react in different ways while sustaining injuries. The program was almost entirely funded from Nat, under the pretense of building an environment to test her Warhounds in combat against real-life "volunteers". The program was developed in an underground NSA Bunker in Washington, D.C. which was used previously to field test many projects that Ortiz Robotics developed like the Turret and Chem Launcher.
The program worked initially, but there was power stability problems with the holograms, so ODEA Tech was contracted to procure a stable power solution. Claire was apprehensive about this as she didn't want to work with Vikram Malik, but was grateful when Cal reassured her that she'd work with Vik's sister: Birdie.
During one of the field tests from the simulation, Claire observed Brian Johnson and his effectiveness in passing through the simulation. However, Cal needed more feedback, so Claire sent a simulated .50 cal round to Johnson, making him feel immense pain. This pleased Claire as it gave her much needed feedback. Claire was also involved in designing Mobile SHD Servers, which play a critical part for the SHD Network. She had them designed as an insurance policy against potential coup as she did not trust Natalya. Cal was impressed, seeing her as a true patriot.
Eventually, ISAC was chosen to be the AI handler for the Division due to multiple negative feedbacks from field agents against ANNA during the tests. Orders came up to have ANNA shut down. Vivian was enraged and begged Claire to not let them kill ANNA. Claire reassured her that ANNA is kept safe beneath ISAC's code in the Mobile SHD Server.
When the Green Poison broke out, Claire and Alex got to a bunker to stay safe from the effects of the virus and weather out from the chaos of the outbreak. A bit after the activation of First Wave agents in New York, Claire was called up by Cal as he was enraged that a Division agent was accidentally marked rogue, lost access to SHD Tech, and got killed. Therefore, she made a workaround by allowing rogue agents keeping access to SHD Tech. To compensate, Claire allowed first deployment of the Hunters as a failsafe against future rogues.
Claire's status in the months after the outbreak and current timeline is unknown.
== Personality ==
From what can be inferred across the comms from Descent, Claire Ortiz could be best described as a breadwinner as her genius and expertise were instrumental in having Ortiz Robotics contracted to design cutting-edge hardware and Artificial Intelligence for secretive organizations like Strategic Homeland Division and Black Tusk.
As the brainchild behind ANNA, she has special fondness for the AI given her advanced code and human-like mannerisms. She hoped by pitching ANNA, there'd be interested parties who'd take the AI. But circumstances were not kind to her nor with ANNA. And despite criticisms against ANNA, Claire was very protective of the AI, even going as far as keeping her safe beneath ISAC's code in the Mobile SHD Server.
Because her work in Ortiz Robotics involved cutting-edge military hardware and AI, Claire may not have the ethical restraint to consider the implications of her work. As an example, one programmer named Kevin Park became aware of Claire's work for ISAC and attempted to warn people about the security risks and privacy violations the AI represents, only to get intimidated to silence.
While Claire doesn't call herself as a patriot, she does care for her country as her work in designing the Mobile SHD Servers is instrumental in keeping the Division's SHD Network safe against their nemesis, Black Tusk. She maintained a belief that some of the projects that Ortiz Robotics developed should belong to the people. 
== Trivia ==
* Claire was first mentioned in the quote (which appears to the player after dying from the boss fight) from Sparkle Warhound in Coney Island Ballpark. In that quote, she talks about how the Flamethrower Warhound could revolutionize forest maintenance. Ironically, Sparkle was used for combat than for forest maintenance.
* As revealed in the official website's article about Neurodivergence in the game, Claire Ortiz is voiced by actress Madison Walsh (who coincidentally voices Birdie Malik)
== Appearances ==
*Tom Clancy's The Division 2
Category:The Division 2
Category:People