"The geth serve as a cautionary tale against the dangers of rogue AI, and in Citadel Space they are technically illegal. Advocacy groups argue, however, that an AI is a living, conscious entity deserving the same rights as organics. They argue that continued use of the term "artificial" is institutionalized racism on the part of organic life, the term "synthetic" is considered the politically correct alternative."
"Experts from nearly every species predicted that true artificial
intelligence-such as a synthetic neural network with the ability to absorb
and critically analyze knowledge-would grow exponentially the instant
it learned to learn. It would teach itself; quickly surpassing the
capabilities of its organic creators and growing beyond their control.
Every single species in the galaxy relied on computers that were linked
into the vast data network of the extranet for transport, trade, defense,
and basic survival. If a rogue AI program was somehow able to access
and influence those data networks, the results would be catastrophic.
Conventional theory held that the doomsday scenario wasn't merely
possible, it was unavoidable. According to the Council, the emergence
of an artificial intelligence was the single greatest threat to organic life
in the galaxy."
"The geth were originally created to serve as an automated manual labor force. Initially their intelligence was as limited as any VI. Over time, we made small modifications to their programming to allow them to perform more varied and complex tasks, bringing them closer and closer to true AI status."
"How come the Council didn't step in and stop you ?"
"This wasn't true AI research - we may have been skirting the bounds of the law, but we never did anything that was actually illegal."
"The example of the geth has led to legal, systematic repression of artificial intelligences in galactic society."
"Commander, AIs are universally illegal. They must be destroyed upon contact, without exception."
Headcanon Wednesday : The Memorial in Tayseri Ward
It has been said, by some, that the truth lies in the silences.
Tucked in a corner in Tayseri Ward, close enough to the Presidium for the location to be prestigious but off the tourist circuit nonetheless, is the Memorial.
What the Memorial memorializes is an event whose very name is disputed. "The Synthetic Genocide" is a term fiercely opposed by those historians who believe synthetics are not alive in the first place, or/and who are loath to even entertain the idea that the Citadel Council, the arbiter of justice across the galaxy and the defender of the equality of all before the law, was at the very least complicit in a stochastic genocide through indifference — when the truth, of course, is much fouler. The accepted term is "Great AI Purge", though in truth, it isn't usually named, so much as described : "In 1896 CE, amidst the panic that followed the sudden revelation that the quarians were losing an existential war against the synthetics they had inadvertently created, all artificial intelligences were destroyed in the territories recognizing the authority of the Citadel Council to limit the risk of an AI uprising." If this is mentioned at all, it is a footnote in the paradigm-shattering event of the Geth War.
The truth was that everyone panicked and the Council sanctioned the murder of every single AI in Citadel Space in the name of security. In many cases, the population had not waited for the go-ahead.
The Memorial began as the friends of the murdered AIs made it out of them : the cannibalized remains of the synthetics, welded together into a monstrous, unmovable structure — the undeniable evidence of incorruptible corpses, still smoking from the gunshots.
Among the public, sympathizers lambasted the decision as "gruesome" and "in poor taste", while most of the galactic population, regardless of species, violently condemned the effort as insulting, insensitive, offensive and prejudiced against the near-total genocide the quarians had just experienced ; members of the intelligentsia were quick to accuse the organizers of "moral relativism".
The makers of the Memorial argued that, for the most part, synthetics had lacked spiritual traditions and any belief system as to what should be done with their component parts after their demise ; that many graveyards, crematoria and such had refused to take in "junk" anyway ; that the Memorial was shocking only if its components were considered corpses, which the Council itself, who had concluded synthetics were not alive, had ruled out ; and that true moral relativism was to pick and choose which systemic killing of innocent populations was an atrocious crime. The crime the quarians had tried to kill all geth for was what they believed the geth might do to them. The crime the geth had nearly killed all quarians for - down to children bombed in hospitals - was the belief the quarians would kill them all as long as they existed in the same spaces. The Citadel species had killed all the AIs because they were in the way of them feeling safe. Shouldn't you condemn all of them ? Weren't all innocent lives worth saving or worth mourning, regardless of who they were ?
The early repression of the advocates for synthetic rights - how they were systematically discredited by the media until they were, in a triumph of nonsense, accused of terrorism and collusion with the geth and barred out of public life - has been documented elsewhere. In the end, the Council decided that the best way to let the problem die down was to let it do so. The Memorial wasn't removed. By the mid-21st century, when everyone who had been alive back then (with the exception of some very militant asari) was dead, the Memorial, which weighed several tons in its original form, was cut down and reduced to a somewhat abstract assemblage of welded parts, with nothing too uncomfortable, on the ground of safety reasons. An official plaque enunciates the deep and abiding regret of the Citadel Council and all the people it represents over those horrific events, now safely tucked in the past, and their joint commitment to nothing of the sort ever happening again. There's no reason to doubt everyone is being sincere.
Isn't it worse ?
Year 1896 CE - Removal of Illegal AIs - Vault C940
These are the last of the AIs on the Citadel ?
This termination action is unlawful ! Why do you continue when our appeal has not yet been heard ?
Keep quiet ! You know that the Council will never overturn its own edict.
