ARIA

## SUMMARY

In the year of 1979, in San Francisco, California, Maxwell Anderson founded the microchip manufacturing and development company Anderson Technology Solutions. Most early work from the company was consultations on chip designs requested by larger manufacturers, but this still placed Maxwell Anderson on the bleeding edge of technological progress. After a period of repeated breakthroughs in chip designs paired with several well-coordinated acquisitions of competitors in the industry, the company was rebranded as Anderson Technology Solutions INC.

Maxwell's pet project from the very beginning had always been research into the possibility of artificial intelligence, despite many detractors assuring him of the unattainability of this goal. After over thirty years of operation, Maxwell had managed to make serious strides in his pursuit, developing early machine-learning algorithms, as well as many systems capable of convincingly faking intelligence. Still, he wanted more. A clever imitation was still, alas, an imitation.

In the year 2012, Maxwell Anderson, as well as several other members of his board, were killed in what appeared to be an assassination attempt during a board meeting. While the attack was lethal, the identity of the intended target was unclear. Immediately following Mr. Anderson's death, the company was placed under the control of an acting director while the families of the deceased board members, as well as several other high-ranking employees with cause for concern, were prepared to be moved out of the country. During the relocation of Rachel Anderson, Maxwell's daughter, to a secured airport, her convoy was attacked. The attackers were unaware that Rachel had been transported alongside a double, a young woman with an uncanny resemblance used for scenarios when security was not guaranteed. The attackers eliminated the double and several others, allowing time for Rachel to enter protective custody under a new identity, far from the country she called home.

In the years of Rachel's absence, Anderson Technology Solutions was run on autopilot, stagnating over time as it failed to keep up with an ever-changing market. While never shutting down, the company did approach bankruptcy on several occasions, only to be bailed out by a private investor each time.

After ten years' time, Rachel Anderson returned to the United States, revealing herself to be alive and well, and assuming her role as acting head of Anderson Technology Solutions. Her input revitalized the dying company, bringing its name back into the public consciousness within industry, while her public persona brought eyes to her from all directions. Rachel Anderson quickly became a media darling, making many public appearances to speak on global conflict and terrorism, as well as hosting a large number of charity events for her humanitarian causes.

In the year 2030, Anderson Technology Solutions was rebranded once more, becoming Anderson Robotics Intelligence and Automation, or ARIA. This change followed the miraculous development of the first successful test of a true AI. While the test was limited, including a timed kill switch to terminate the system after a few milliseconds, or if it began stretching the limits of its hardware beyond what was expected, it was enough for this thinking machine to demonstrate its legitimacy. ARIA capitalized on this development and the press it brought by buying out multiple competitors in the field, adding their workforce to its own in order to increase the speed of research as much as possible.

In 2038, ARIA broke new ground once more. It had become time to test the true capabilities of a watchdog AI, and with the assistance of the massive social and political sway held by Rachel Anderson herself, the city of Alta Turre was founded as the first officially recognized independent city-state on United States soil.

After nearly two decades of research and development, the year 2063 sees the launch of the first generation of ATAS units within the walls of Alta Turre, marking a historic moment in AI driven security.

After many years of service as the company's guiding mind, as well as a multitude of successes and failures in her mission, Rachel Anderson passed away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 107, satisfied in her mission as the third generation of ATAS prepares for release. After the passing of Ms. Anderson, leadership of ARIA was transferred to Harold Barnes, a personal advisor of the former leader that had been groomed to follow her plans in her stead.

The 2110 launch of the third generation of ATAS was a landmark moment for ARIA. The Alta Turre project had been decided a success, if slightly flawed, and several similar cities were erected around the globe, built to improve upon the issues that had been discovered as Alta Turre had matured. The new generation of ARIA's bipedal units were also seeing greatly increased use outside of their cities, having been selected to replace sections of the United States military in order to perform tasks that were deemed too dangerous for human operators.

A decade later, the fourth generation of ARIA's drones is unveiled, bringing with it major developments. The units were deemed ready to entirely replace the United States' field combatants, leading the country to become the first global superpower with an entirely non-human fighting force. Within ARIA itself, the announcement was made that the current generation of the AI core at the heart of the company, colloquially referred to as The Hive, was advanced enough to be allowed to self-iterate, developing new generations to come entirely without human input or oversight. All human staff still working in non-executive positions were given a plush pension with which to retire, The majority of the board stepped down as well, leaving the only human employees on file to be those operating the company in a strictly financial sense.

ARIA continues to make its mark on the world, now by way of the AI core announcing the incoming release of the fifth generation of ATAS, boasting significant improvements in per-unit cognition, decision making, situational awareness, and even a human-like intuition.

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