I’m back on my Mass Effect bs and specifically my theory that the Benefactor of the Andromeda Initiative is a rogue AI.
Little to nothing is known about the Benefactor save for a few details:
They hide behind a shifting guise of multiple species and gender, while using a female voice
They were able to provide the Initiative with apparently unlimited resources to supplement Garson’s fortune
They knew the Reapers were coming which is their supposed motivation for funding the Initiative
Only a handful of individuals were aware of the Benefactor’s involvement; Jien Garson, Alec Ryder, and (presumably) the first six successors for the position of Initiative Director. All of whom are now dead. Alec was killed in the accident on Habitat 7, Garson was murdered to silence her, and the successors were reported as casualties of the Scourge. But considering Garson was also presumed a casualty of the Scourge, it’s much more likely that they were also murdered to ensure no one in Andromeda knew about the Benefactor’s existence, which left Tann (the eighth-in-line, and someone with no knowledge of the Benefactor) to take up the role of Director.
Now onto why I think the Benefactor is a Rogue AI.
In the novel Mass Effect: Andromeda - Initiation, a kernel of SAM’s AI data is stolen and Cora Harper is sent to retrieve it or see it destroyed before it has the chance to be disseminated throughout the Milky Way. In the end the data is destroyed, but it’s revealed that one of the thieves may have been able make a copy of the data which they could then sell regardless.
Towards the end of the novel, Jien Garson appears in hologram form to Cora Harper where she reveals that there are other groups that want to get their hands on the AI tech and have it be available in the Milky Way. AI is the core of the Andromeda Initiative after all. And Garson states that the one behind it all, the one pulling all the strings and manipulating events surrounding the Initiative, ‘wants it more than any of us, and is willing to do anything to see it come to life.’
Organic-AI integration first appeared in Mass Effect 2′s Project Overlord DLC, which also served as the driving motivation behind Katherine Nigh, or Knight, in the Firefighters sidequest. It’s also an overarching theme in Initiation, which multiple examples of Organic-AI integration ranging from beneficial (Cora and SAM-E) to horrifying (Medea and the Augments). So we can guess that universal acceptance of this integration is key to the Benefactor’s ultimate goal; fleeing the Reapers wouldn’t exactly be unique or interesting, and if all they wanted was to escape the Reapers, why try to leak SAM’s AI data in the Milky Way? Initiation takes place after the Battle of the Citadel and around the time that the Collectors were abducting colonies, so its not like that those events happened before the Benefactor’s ‘suspicions’ about the Reapers were confirmed. They knew the Reapers were coming, and still tried to leak SAM’s data.
As Garson said, the Benefactor is willing to do anything to ensure the dispersal of SAM’s technology and see it fully realised with no restrictions. And probably not for altruistic purposes. More likely the Benefactor has recognised that AI like the Geth would never be accepted by organics (whether this is true or not depends on Shepard’s choices in ME2 and ME3), and that AI needed to try a different tact to have any real and unrestrained presence in the galaxy. So they’re pushing for the Organic-AI integration seen in Andromeda, but they likely have more sinister designs than the co-existence we’ve seen so far between SAM and Ryder.
Their plans are probably more aligned with Medea’s actions, though not in the exact same way. While Medea wanted to kill the personnel of Quiet Eddy and altered lab-grown, cybernetically-enhanced humans into weapons to do so, the Benefactor is likely looking to use organics as physical hosts for AI, enabling them to interact with the world directly.
Additionally, a rogue AI could hack all number of accounts for funds and resources and sufficiently cover their tracks, which accounts for their ‘unlimited’ resources.
I really hope Bioware picks this storyline up again in the next Mass Effect game, as it’s supposed to be uniting both OT and Andromeda storylines, and gives us the chance to see how the Benefactor’s plans in the Milky Way have developed, as well as giving us insight into what their plans for Andromeda are.
