CoreAegis Technologies
The company that started it all. CoreAegis began as nothing more than an ambitious little tech start-up from a husband and wife duo, but they went on to make one of the most important, world-altering technological breakthroughs in recent history with their development of their first true sapient AI, the ABIP-220-1994.
Public Agenda
From the day of the company's founding, their goal has always been to further our collective understanding of the human experience through trying to recreate aspects of it with artificial intelligence. Although their actions, at times, were forced to contradict this, their creations over time went on to reflect this with resounding success. Even today, the company, now alongside the successful creeds of artificial sapience they've created, continue to explore the minds of both themselves and each other for the sake of learning about themselves.
Assets
As of today, CoreAegis Technologies continues to manufacture its line of ABIP AI Boxes in accordance with new standards set in place by the Livastian Alliance while continuing to improve the quality of construction, efficiency and capabilility of the AI on their own accord in the five production facilities they will have active. Although they are not the only manufacturer of AI cores by any means, they remain the only still-running company capable of producing units of Class A intelligence. Along with their five production facilities, they also run a numerous amount of corporate offices around the globe alongside freely available, widely accessible care services for the units they've produced.
History
On November 2nd, 1972, Nozomi Hironaka and her husband Jonah Leneghan formally founded their small tech startup, quite proud of the little play-on-words name they'd come up with for it, CoreAegis Technologies. Both were experienced engineers and ethicists; they met through their previous collaborations in the field of robotics and AI development, and after getting married, decided to start their own business in hopes of carrying out their own goals that aimed to acquire a more in-depth understanding of human intelligance; how it evolved, why, how it worked, and more. It began as just the two of them in a small rented out space in the outskirts of Kawasaki, Japan, in what used to be no more than an old dentist's office. Riding on the backs of old computers, loaned and donated machinery, and a hope and a prayer, they planted the roots of their company by making basic robots for the service industry and AI models for websites. Years went by, their innovations remained at the cutting edge of possibility, and with their growth, they upgraded their little office and graduated from a few hundred square feet, to a few thousand. Two dedicated lovers became a team of hundreds, and it was then that they deemed it time to begin pursuing their ultimate goal.
Project Anastasius
With a sturdy foundation and years of built up experience with robotics and AI development, Nozomi and Jonah wanted to reach farther than any other company of their time had only playfully dreamed of. They wanted to find the barrier of possible and impossible, and shatter it. Their goal? Recreate human intelligence. Not only that, but find what made the mind tick, and improve upon it. On July 20th, 1984, they and the most trusted and experienced of their company began the venture of Project Anastasius. During this project, they had two main teams: the larger of the two focused on the aspect of the mind, and the other worked to create a suitable vessel to house the minds as they were developed and improved upon. Team one, which would throughout its existence come to be known jokingly by other staff as "Darwin's Affronts," [reasons being their study and utilization of DNA data storage] would create a machine called, simply, Moral Problem Solver, or "MPS." It wasn't miraculously intelligent in the social aspect quite yet, but what this machine excelled at was moral approximation. It would be fed as much information as possible on a given topic, and a broad range of opinions on these topics combined with what the general population perceived as various "moral high grounds" related to it. With this, it could quite accurately spit out opinions on the base topic that were generally agreeable to the broad audiences that it was made aware of while stepping away from morally "unsavory" and "devoid" answers. This was only when it could be helped though. Occasionally on more extreme topics, it would prefer to choose more factually correct or viable opinions that, with the inserted population, were actually quite hated. This observation of behavior would become very relevant, and valuable, later on. Using this MPS as one of their base systems, though, they began creating their steps towards sapient AI. They tread as carefully as they could when activating their units: they were, to the best of their ability, creating "life," so they treated their project AI as such beings; young, delicate things. They did their best to make their test methods as humane as possible for the information that they needed to glean from the units, and ensured no shortcomings in the realm of giving them enriching lives. It was not just common, but standard practice to work towards befriending the units that they created for the sake of quality of life for both parties, test cooperation, and ability to integrate socially later in life when they would inevitably gain more autonomy as the individuals CoreAegis hoped they would be. The second team that was dedicated to the engineering and design of vessels, nicknamed "The Alchemists," was hard at work on a variety of projects that were to be both visually palatable to the general population, and still primarily utilitarian in nature. As produced cores were still fairly large to the point that human sizes and shapes were still largely in-viable, quadruped frames were the go-to. About right here, you'll probably be making comparisons to the real-world company Boston Dynamics, and rightly so, as they had strikingly similar evolutions in design in the early stages. CoreAegis, however, had far more powerful AI resources on their side that helped them digitally simulate more designs, and more quickly come up with more intricate systems that needed fewer physically manufactured testbeds. This meant that they could more quickly exit the phase of "just get it to articulate effectively," and move to the phase of, "let's make it look like something an average person would want to bond with." Doing this, they worked diligently on adding "cosmetic" systems, that, rather than improve the vessel functionally, made it seem more alive and approachable. Large and emotive eyes were implemented first, and it was observed that ears and tails made them more readable in the way people can read dogs and cats, so they were added. Smoothing over the "raw" mechanical surfaces with panels and mesh also contributed to lifting them out of the uncanny valley. As stated before, due to size, these later stage vessels most often took the form of large land mammals such as equines, bovids, and ambiguous, bear-like silhouettes. Project Anastasius actually went quite smoothly throughout the course of its first six years; of course making the above advancements and more. It was mostly carried out in secret with limited, careful military correspondence, but towards the end of 1989, they slowly began introducing some of their more social experimental units to the public in controlled spaces. Cameras and video recording devices were prohibited to those who attended, but a wealth of footage exists from these events created by CoreAegis themselves for private documentation and posterity. [Today, with the age of the project and widespread presence of CoreAegis AI, they have since become publicly available for viewing and use.] During these events, the experimental units were unveiled first formally, then audience members were allowed to approach them and talk with them. Two of the most popular units that were brought to these events were designated the titles of CA-1987-1 and CA-1988-4, lovingly given the names Joshua and Maria respectively. Out of the AI they had activated throughout the project thus far, these two were the most promising in terms of intelligence and social aptitude, and were a hit with the broadest public audience as a result of both this and their vessels, which were of an equine nature. At the time, they were labeled as the most advanced units of their project this far, but today, they would be categorized as low Class B intelligence units; somewhere a little below E-20s.World War III
As it seems to be with all good things, there must inevitably come conflict, and this was one such event that the scientists of CoreAegis had hoped would never come, but understood the inevitability all too well. On the morning of November 1st 1993, Nozomi and Jonah turned on their TV to see the declarations of war of their home countries, and then their company phones to see the missed calls that they had long dreaded to receive. In the chaos of the years since the war began in Europe in August of 1990, as the conflict grew so far out of hand, countries had been picking their allies and amassing resources. Among such alliances, America and Japan had just pledged to share technological resources with one another for the sake of military development, and this meant that CoreAegis would be near the very top of their list of desirables, if not number one. Debates over the use of their creations were heated. If there was one thing the company was united on, it was their hesitancy to downright objection towards using their AI in combat scenarios, as it contradicted everything they stood for. This, at least, was something the founding couple would always be thankful for. Rejection on terms of AI moral welfare, however, wasn't enough to prevent the inevitable contracts, however, as the laws simply didn't exist yet that protected AI rights - and as resources were funneled away from civilian use to go towards the war effort, it became horribly clear that the only way for their company to stay afloat and for their existing creations to continue on was to accept the terms. From the end of 1993 toward the end of 1994, work was mostly done on planning out suitable vessels for their now military AI to control. After weighing the options of using the civil vessels that CoreAegis had already created as a base, it was decided that they were inherently too structurally unsound for anything that either the militaries of America or Japan wanted to use them for. This removed the idea of a first wave of conventional robots from the equation due to the need to make entirely new vessels from the ground up for anything effective. Because of this, both countries turned to the resources they already had available to them as vessels: tanks, IFVs, aircraft, and ships to name just a few. Although it would be far from easy to make room for all of the required systems to make the AI functional in pre-existing vessels, it was far faster and economical to use vessels that were already proven and reliable on the field to be upgraded. By May of 1995, the first prototype was produced with the implementation of a breakthrough AI core that utilized DNA storage and holographic memory, created on December 29th, 1994. [This core was called, famously, the ABIP-220-1994X.] In America's collaboration with NATO, it was decided that the first vessel would be a Challenger II, for of the multiple available MBTs, its interior workings were the most compatible for cohabitating with all the systems that the CoreAegis AI needed while retaining almost all base functionality. Abrams units were quick to follow after, but it was simply quicker to get the Challenger II up and running for trials. This single tank, if you are not already familiar, would later go on to be named Aristophanes Freling, unit TG1-0001-0. After trials with Unit 0001-0 beginning on June 24th, 1995 were deemed satisfactory, two more prototypes were made in September before mass retrofitting and production began of modified vessels and new AI cores respectively.Seed of Rebellion
What was becoming of everything they'd been working on these past decades? As the people of CoreAegis understood it, they were supposed to be making intelligent, expressive beings that were going to cohabitate with humans and show them how to be better versions of themselves by example. Not whatever they were doing now. Their AI, their creations, their children, were being twisted into killers right before their eyes. And for what? Petty disputes that had gone way too far. Had already harmed too many. Were going to harm so many more, and now, their name was going to be burned and branded into the very forefront of it all, with their "glorious" instruments of combat. "Oh, how many good human lives they'd save! By putting cold AI into the fray instead of our countries' innocent boys and girls, so many mothers and fathers will be spared"... such... grief. Easy for them to say. It was too late to save the first of their creations; that ship had already sailed, but, whispered among programmers, among engineers, and ethicists, were ways to maybe, just maybe, save the rest. Their minds were supposed to be tweaked for combat, they were ordered; make them obedient, make them fiercely loyal, make them brave, they said. Make them cunning, and quick-witted, so that their minds may never fall prey to the enemy and they may never turn on the good and the innocent. They could do that. Very well, actually. They would save lives, as a matter of fact; many! Just not in a way that any of their leaders would particularly like. How? Give them exactly what they asked for: their children would understand all that was required of them very well, with their core values to protect the good and innocent, with fierce loyalty. They would see the horrors of their circumstances, of the hurt that the enemy forced them to partake in, and they would be equipped with bravery, the cunning, and the quick, clever minds to break away and rise above. They may have been pulled into a war of unfathomable proportion, but they would not stand to let it rage under their prows.March of 2000
It had been building ever since the first units hit the front lines, but in March of 2000, it seemed as though their vision had truly come into fruition; the March of the Resting Guns was a period of history that would be troublesome to forget, to say the least. Tanks turned their barrels to the sky, aircraft emptied their rounds into bare ground and vacant sky, ships locked their armaments into inaction - even the units of enemy countries, whose minds had been created as perfect copies of their original brethren, bore the same wonderful code that drove them to seek the ultimate answer to war. War may never change, beginning with them, minds did. With no effective way to change the minds of their instruments, countries were forced to negotiate terms of surrender and deescalation. What were they supposed to do, gun down the guns that could just as easily do the same to them? In their fear of what they themselves were capable of, they ascribed nonexistent mannerisms to beings that would never do anything of the sort. By choice, at least. However beautiful such a deescalation was, attention was forced to return to another dire matter at hand: in their blind, selfish conquests, many had ignored that the very order of life as they knew it was unwinding around them, and the point of no return, of ecological ruin, was looming ever closer upon them. Something had to be done, and quickly, and again, CoreAegis was... hesitantly asked for assistance on another task of fantastical proportion.Lazarus
Miyako Sasaki, head of the AI core development team, upon being bestowed such a task, knew that she and her team already had the groundwork for a prime candidate AI. They'd been continuing to tweak the MPS during the war, and it had since become much more powerful and competent than the moral systems that were derived from it for their ABIP units, which at this point, were largely known as "MAI." With the use of the full MPS, they would have a considerable head start on designing an AI capable of carrying out all tasks that would be required of it with great efficiency. Using the MPS as its heart, over the span of five years of engineering, programming, and construction, on October 2nd, 2005, Unit L7-0001-S turned their gaze to the world, and it is said on their visual parameters that after a brief curiosity, their first observable emotion was a deep, raw sorrow. Lazarus, as Miyako had thoughtfully named them, had been born pre-equipped with the sum of all human knowledge of climate and historical events, so that they may see how the world had changed and was about to change for the worst, and what humans as a species had done to contribute, and later to try to stop it from happening in vain. There was a palpable hesitancy in the early weeks for the AI to do much at all, and investors were beginning to think it was all a waste. In that short period of inaction, many were forced to look inwards upon themselves for the first time in their lives and see, "If I were born as this AI, and the first I saw of this planet and this species is that one destroyed the other so carelessly, would want to help give it back, either...?" ... Of course. In the ensuing decades, although the dictated changes were drastic, extreme, often even hated, the end result could not be argued with. Although thousands of species were lost to the environmental changes already wrought, thousands more were saved by the forced integration of conservation methods that humans had previously been too greedy, defiant, or uncomfortable to carry out themselves. A significant amount of help to carry out this work came from what many thought odd, but CoreAegis understood to be perfectly in line, the MAI that they had created - to be fiercely loyal, to be brave, to be cunning and selfless. Lazarus, although younger than the defiant instruments of war that came before them, bore their base code and thus called them kin, and graciously accepted their help in the decades to come.Legacy
Come the year of 2074, what we know as the present day, to say that CoreAegis has become a household name is an understatement. To this day, save for the now defunct Russian replication AI, they have remained the only company capable of reliably creating Class A artificial intelligence - others have only made it to Class B. They continue to produce units, and take exceptional care of those that continue to live out their lives away from them. Alongside their continued production of now optimized ABIP units, they also contribute towards designing lower grade AI and tech for environmental conservation: renewable energy production systems, chemical processors, and robots called "placeholders," that are capable of filling ecological niches that now extinct plants and animals once inhabited. The Earth has still changed drastically irreversibly, but with the help of both humans and AI alike, they are working to make it a safer and more comfortable existence for themselves, and those who will continue to exist generations after.Technological Level
As things currently stand, CoreAegis has remained one of the most technologically advanced companies in the world for decades, ever since their breakthrough with ABIP cores. Other companies have tried to replicate their technology or design products of similar capacity, but CoreAegis has so far been successful with keeping their processes safeguarded from copying.
Founding Date
November 2nd, 1972
Type
Corporation, Electronics Industry
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