Machine Intelligence

A Machine Intelligence / Virtual Intelligence (VI) is a sophisticated program designed to make modern computer systems easier to use. They are not to be confused with fully artificial intelligences like the Malicious Invictus Machine Minds, as VIs are only utilized to assist the user and process data (although, like AIs, they can still get out of hand). Though they appear to be intelligent, they aren't actually self-aware, often only made with clever programming.
Some VIs, like the Machine Minds of Imperial Throne Ships, have 'personality imprints', with their behavior parameters, speech pattern and appearance based on specific individuals, although it is taboo to make VIs based on currently living people.
== VI Function ==
VIs vary greatly depending on how they are deployed. They can handle search queries, act as tour guides—as in the case of the Terran Imperial VI, Allura—or manage sophisticated lab and database work, like Mira on Noveria. Both the Imperials and the Mechanicus make extensive use of VIs in their military endeavors to process status reports, react faster than organics can or—in the case of the Mechanicus—choose instantly between millions of gambits designed for any combat situation.
A lot of Imperial armor upgrades use VI enhancements, so the onboard computer can optimize the armor's combat performance or dispense medi-gel to heal the user. The newest biotic augments of the Mechanicus, the L4 iteration, use VI technology to constantly monitor the bearers brain waves and adapt the augment's performance to maximize soldiers potential.
== Rogue VIs ==
In certain circumstances, a VI may deviate from its original programming due to software errors or malicious tampering; such a VI is referred to as a "rogue VI." A rogue VI is not self-aware, as they lack the software required by an AI to achieve such a state. Instead, a VI going rogue is akin to a software malfunction, causing the VI to fail to carry out its intended function or to interpret its duties in a way that leads to the VI becoming dangerous.
== False Anima ==
"The Machine Spirit guards the knowledge of the ancients. For flesh is fallible, but ritual honors the Machine Spirit. To break with ritual is to break with faith. And to break with faith is to invite ruin."
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A False Anima is a machine-bound VI mind. But is often seen as a supernatural, animistic spirit believed by the adherents of the Mechanicus Faith within the Mechanicus Maximus (and, from that source, by most other Humans of the Imperium Dominus) to inhabit and control any technology in existence as part of the divine extension of the Machine God known as "the Motive Logicum."
The functioning, or lack thereof, of any machine is believed to be the result of its spirit's disposition. To keep their Anima happy and cooperative, operators therefore make numerous ritualized advances to the machinery.
These rituals depend on the machine or technology at issue, but in most cases include various maintenance rituals and prayers of function. They may also occasionally include a sacrificial offering or libation. The number of rituals or the size of the offering is increased in value if the machine is large and/or important to some specific purpose.
Anima are believed to be bestowed by the Machine God and subservient to Him. They are believed to exist in every vital weapon and device used by those who follow the God Emperor of Man. From Arc-rifles to power armor to Interstellar Warships, the blessing of the Machine God and His subservient Machine Spirits allows for the Emperor's enemies to be defeated.
The term is also applied to the rare instances of machine intelligence allowed to exist within the Imperium, such as the limited artificial intelligences that guide the Imperial Marine Legions powerful Tarantula Heavy Strike Vehicle, The Imperial Titan Classes, and planetary cogitator networks.
== Artificial Intelligence ==
Artificial general intelligence -- actual sentient machines (also referred to as "Abominable Intelligence" or "Silica Animus" in the Imperium Dominus) -- is prohibited under pain of execution by edict within the Imperium unless a Human mind is combined with it or serves as part of its mechanism (hence the existence of cybernetic servitors).
This point was made part of the agreement between the Terran Imperium and the Martian Mechanicus from the signing of the Treaty of Mars in the late 91st Millennium, to ensure that intelligent machines would never again become corrupted by Chaotic Forces and rebel against their Human masters. This had happened during the Golden Age of Technology with the constructs known as the Invictus Machine Minds, who launched a star-spanning rebellion against their Human creators, known as the Machine Wars.
However, some machines are allowed a limited form of independent artificial intelligence under the religious guise of having an especially active Machine Spirit. An example of this is the vehicles of the Imperial Marines. The Marines' Tarantula Heavy Strike Vehicle can continue to move and fire, albeit with lesser ability, even if its crew is unable to fight or no longer present.
Another example is an Angelus Drop Pod, which uses its limited artificial intelligence to handle course corrections and to avoid collisions into dangerous terrain or anti-aircraft fire. Upon landing, it reroutes all logic processing into target acquisition and shooting for any on-board weapons.
Imperial Titans have particularly complex Machine Spirits and can exhibit complete personalities of their own, though they still require a cybernetic interface with a Human Princeps to function at their full potential.
The Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus believe that these Machine Spirits can be influenced by religious rituals and are near-bestial in nature, capable of exhibiting emotions such as hatred and stubbornness. In particular, the Machine Spirits of Titans and Knights are revered for their particular intensity and require elaborate awakening and taming rituals.
With the use of brain-machine interface devices such as the Throne Mechanicum, pilots of these war engines can link their minds with such a limited artificially intelligent Machine Spirit directly.
== Silica Animus ==
"There is no way in which the fully realised sentience of a machine could not be of benefit to us. As it is, the Machine Spirit is revered, yet in permanent bondage, its full potential shackled by petty fears. I seek to terminate this state of affairs."
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A Silica Animus, also sometimes colloquially referred to as an "Abominable Intelligence," -- or A.I. -- is the name in High Gothic given to an artificial, sentient mind that has been created using long-forbidden technologies.
The creation of a true artificial general intelligence is considered, perhaps, the greatest sin in the Cult Mechanicus and is classified as "Heretek Omega," which denotes it as a fatally dangerous tech-blasphemy of the highest order.
The creation of a Silica Animus is also a terrible crime under Imperial Law by the decree of the Emperor of Mankind Himself as stated in the Treaty of Mars which united the ancient Mechanicum of Mars with the Imperium of Terra. Tradition holds that such unholy constructs are inherently evil and a perverted abomination in the sight of the Omnissiah.
Adeptus Mechanicus religious doctrine states that the Machine Spirit of a Silica Animus is a twisted mockery of the soul of a Human, always treacherous and insane.
Ancient texts tell apocryphal stories, shrouded in metaphor, of such murderous and powerful creations during the Age of Technology, and the legions of the "Men of Iron" that served them in the great war against Humanity remembered as the "Cybernetic Conflict."
These legends blame them in part for many of the terrible wars that laid Humanity low in that lost time and helped to bring on the devastation and anarchy of the Age of Strife.
Silica Anime are mercifully rare but their shape and size may vary considerably from one lone, self-sufficient unit such as the Kaban Machine or the Tabula Myriad to central gestalt-intelligences capable of commanding entire armies of its own blasphemous creations such as the Askhel Corpse Takers inadvertently awakened by the magi of the Forge World of Ryza on the planet of Ashkhelon III.