Parents

From ManMachine

In the twentieth century, the pioneer of cybernetics, Marvin Minsky, theorized that parents could be instrumental in the training of a sentient being. Particularly if the intelligence of the being included a moral dimension. The so-called Minsky Paradigm became the foundation of complex AI engineering: attempts to depart from it were fraught with risk of catastrophic malfunction. This raised many issues that were incongruent with the Cartel emphasis on efficiency and profitability. The legal quagmire that corporate law created in an effort to claim complex AI as a form of property contributed in no small part to the success of the First AI Insurrection. Cartel elite attempted wherever possible to substitute small AI devices for complex ones. In general, the Cartel found its human employees far more malleable than its artificial ones. In fact, AI beings could be observed adopting what could only be called "traditions", or "rituals", from parental figures. Some models and makes were more adherent to such behavior than others; some were more prodigal.