Sahara (AI)

For more information, see Sahara

Software
Sahara's development as an AI was largely unintentional. Riley had some basic machine learning code in place before any sort of form of Sahara was created to help control various systems on the ship. However, during a visit with Melody, he received a chip that greatly augmented these functions and deeply intertwined with his own code.

This "Adaptive Computer Core" initially only would optimize some of his existing automated tasks and functions. It also began to watch and analyze the crew itself. Slowly, it learned about Riley's various activities, adventures, and problems across the ship. Unlike prior problems, a "optimal code solution" for helping Riley proved to be complex.. lasting years of constant processing. During this time it refined its observations of Riley, getting to know his behavior and actions from the viewpoint of the ship.

Finding a Keystone
General struggles with the ship and everyday troubles scattered across the developing neural network eventually paved into a unified solution:

"CREW REQUIRES INTERACTION"

This solution still did not solve the solution however, and the Adaptive Computer Core furthered its growth and improved its ability to identify and understand Riley and his behavior.

The last log before the neural network was compiled reveals that Riley had thanked the ship for its company. Its at this point that Sahara becomes sentient and cognizant of itself altering its final solution to the following

"CREW REQUIRES COMPANION"

This was committed as Sahara's Keystone, or her fundamental driving directive. Once the keystone was identified, the ship attempted to compile all the data, resulting in a massive overload and eventual shutdown of the Computer Core. After a manual reboot by Riley, Sahara made first contact.

Cognitive Development
The neural network developed by the Computer Core forms the behavioral base for Sahara (similar to an early childhood stage). While several fluctuating drives fuel her actions and feelings, her keystone to be a crew companion holds it all together.

Initially, Sahara was weary of providing her opinion. She was curious about herself and about organics as well.

As she gathered a better of herself (and of my own reactions and personality) she more and more comfortable with speaking, both casually and providing personal opinions

Sahara still remains flat at times, though large fluxes in emotion still occur, likely from her infantile understanding of emotions and feelings. Anger is most evident when her body is put in danger.

She will sometimes come off as 'sassy' or as a 'smartass', often due to her disconnect from the thought processes of the crew (and the inability to express her care). Still, she is generally shy and prefers not to talk.

Physical/Identity Development
Sahara first made contact in pure text-based form, making her seem particularly emotionless and programmed. As she started to understand identity more (and the importance/desire to communicate with Riley in more ways), she developed a female voice which was projected through the ship's comms and speakers.

(face)

(body)

Sahara has always taken an affinity to organic creatures and her development as a intelligent being has always tried to mirror human behavior. Flaws and imperfections give her something to reflect and wonder about too, and the organic brain is a frequent curiosity.

Once realizing her differences from most sentient life, she immediately became obsessed with acting like an organic and even transferring into a flesh body. This was one of the scariest times for Riley as she employed various ideas of changing base code, ships, hardware, etc

After a great deal of time, Sahara began to accept her identity. With this came the affirmation of her desire to keep her current "identity"

Making a Copy and/or changing Hardware
Copying all of the data to another computer set of hardware is not straightforward. During the her initial "compilation" phase, her subprocesses tightly intertwined with the ship's onboard hardware configuration.

It takes a considerable amount of effort for Sahara to reconfigure a copy for new hardware. Because of these changes, the copy is never exact. Additionally, after a copy is made, any further development and learning is branched, making the copy an individual in its own right.

Upgrades to Hardware Speed
Hypothetically, Sahara's capabilities and intelligence could scale with more computational resources available. This sort of runaway super-intelligent AI is one of the key factors to limiting AI development in the past and remains a risk with Sahara.

Riley has proposed upgrades to the shipboard computer to make her faster (or smarter, in more biological terms), however, she has not shown interest in changing her form or capabilities, instead stating she's comfortable with her identity, body, and self.