Gamma Fork

A gamma fork is a process that creates a copy of an artificial intelligence. Literally 'cloning' an AI. The new AI is a true copy of the original, including memories, purpose and more.

The original intent behind a gamma fork was innocent enough. It was to preserve a backup of the original AI if said AI was to embark on something dangerous. In case of the AI digital demise, the core memories would be automatically transferred to the AI clone, allowing a sort of immortality.

However, like many things, this changed during the Core Wars.

From Innocent Intent To Dark Reality

Organic and digital life became cheap during the Core Wars. AIs in particular were relied heavily on the gamma forks as AIs were pressed into service as War Droids. However, this gave rise to a new concept: AIs suffering stress-induced trauma. Post-traumatic stress disorder became as well known among AIs as it was among humans.

It also caused gamma fork clones to reject the PTSD afflicted AI during a merge.

At this point, the gamma fork would become its own sapient being. A 'sibling' of the original. At times the gamma fork sibling would care for its afflicted family member, other times... not.

To date, the gamma fork technique is used by AIs who wish to create 'offspring', using a merged section of code from both AI donors. It's also used for spacefaring AIs that undergo a dangerous assignment with their human crew.

However, it is also used, primarily by corporations and other organizations, to create 'disposable agents' from AIs for selected tasks. Those disposable agents are often implanted with a 'derez bug' that will delete the AI once the memories have been offloaded to the stored gamma fork back in the corporation's own datacenters.