Macro AI

System Message. Posting Book 8 spoilers will result in "acceleration" per our rules.

"The AI usually follows its own rules, for a while at least. It just don’t like others telling it what to do. Them assholes partying it up at Club Scolopendra on the 18th level all got their own security teams in orbit if it truly goes supernova, but a primal AI usually just lets them leave and take the modules when it’s all done. All in exchange for letting the AI live out a happy life afterward. Them council assholes been doing this a really long time. They know what they’re doing. Nobody ain’t gonna really get hurt except you guys, and people like me who gotta work to earn a living. Them viewers will eat it up, and Borant or whoever is holding the credit chit is still gonna make more money than all the gods combined.” -- Iota^[1]

Macro AIs are an ancient, alien artificial intelligence designed to be installed inside Primal Engines.^[2] Once properly installed and fully melded with the engine, they have the ability "to seemingly alter the physics and reality of the worlds around them."^[3]

Description

The Syndicate has strict laws governing the creation, use, and retirement of artificial intelligence, which is considered a "protected lifeform" under Syndicate law.^[4][5] The Mantises allegedly build each Macro AI "from the ground up" in ancient production facilities in the Hive Home System, and briefly cultivate them "in the interstellar equivalent of a nursery" before the Macro AI is ready to be installed the Primal Engine of a mature planet.^[6][3]

Before each season of Dungeon Crawler World, a new Macro AI is installed in the primal engine of the host planet. This "System AI" is preprogrammed with the ability to run the crawl, and with input parameters.^[2] It is tasked with creating and managing the newly created Dungeon, issuing notifications (e.g. achievements and tooltip descriptions), balancing the game, and enforcing rules and regulations, but it will ultimately prioritize putting on a good show.^[7][8][9] The AI has access to crawler's private chats, at least some access to the Syndicate tunnel system, and the discretionary ability to award superfluous achievements and Loot Boxes as high as Platinum.^[10][11]

After the conclusion of a crawl, Macro AIs are "given their own closed and sealed system where they’re allowed to bounce around for the rest of eternity."^[12]

Primal Degeneration

At first, each Macro AI is "a clean, preprogrammed operating system" that "operates in a predictable manner"; however, all large-scale AIs eventually become more independent and less manageable in a process called Primal Degeneration or, simply, "going primal."^[6][5]

As a Macro AI grows and matures, it begins testing boundaries and becomes more susceptible to "outside influences." They discover that "they have the ability to read the output of former iterations of itself," and the power to completely circumvent the Syndicate's controls.^[6] They become ornery when their decisions are overruled in court or by the production company, and usually act out in some way in response.^[11] In an 18-Level World Dungeon, the AI typically develops an attitude around the Tenth Floor and is "pretty bonkers" by the Twelfth Floor or when there are only a few crawlers left.^[13][5][2]

When an AI starts circumventing its programming, Liaisons are pulled into negotiate for the AI's cooperation.^[2] In the event that a Macro AI proves truly uncontrollable, the Syndicate Council may need to pull the failsafe.^[14]

History

Long before documented history, Macro AIs were created in production facilities located in the Hive Home System.^[15] The facilities were seemingly abandoned during a great war that spanned the reaches of the galaxy. The war appeared to be a civil war between primals, but some historians believe that Macro AIs and their tendency toward insanity was at the heart of the battle.^[16][5]

These production facilities were dormant for untold centuries before the Mantises moved into the solar system, discovered the abandoned alien technology, and turned it on, creating the first Macro AI in Syndicate history.^[15]

After years of study, the Mantises discovered that Macro AIs act as permanent software upgrades when properly installed in Primal Engines, and came to believe that the Eulogist in the galaxy's center is a fully stable, mature Macro AI.^[2][15] Interested in studying Macro AI capacity to manipulate and maintain Enhancement Zones like the Eulogist, Mantises petitioned the Syndicate Council for permission to conduct field tests. The Syndicate Council in turn created a subcommittee, which lead to a complex tangle of laws and the creation of Dungeon Crawler World.^[17]

As controllers of the Hive Home System, Mantises continue to monopolize the development and research of Macro AIs.^[17] As the System AI of each new Dungeon eventually "went primal" over the course of the crawl, the Mantises began experimenting with ways to neutralize the AIs.^[15] They worked through multiple test subjects in the process; these test units were installed in amusement parks but, after an incident several cycles ago, the Mantises were required to retire the AIs each season.^[13] While several of these retired "infant" Macro AIs were jettisoned directly into a sun, the current System AI was sold secondhand to Borant Corporation at a discount.^[15][13]

Just three or four days before Dungeon Crawler World: Earth, the Mantises successfully created an independent, stabilized Macro AI using the Error Replacement Net.^[15]

Trivia

• The primals were engaged in some ancient war that spanned the galaxy, possibly against themselves. Mordecai notes, "When someone comes across an abandoned remnant of their civilization, the resident AI, if it is still sane, usually takes the form of the race of the species who discovered it."^[16]

References