Editing Pirates of the Baltic Sea (section)

===Artificial Intelligence===

Artificial Intelligence has been used for close to two centuries, although mostly in the form of intelligent agents. Advanced web search and recommendation systems were among the first kinds. But people who designed those agents would be surprised of the advances made since. In 2185, AI is virtually everywhere. Self-driving vehicles, intelligent apartments, and most pieces of personal electronics. But the vast majority of that is weak AI – machine intelligence focused on a narrow task, with no sentience or true personality, or way to act outside its specific function. Weak AI was the extent of what was possible until 80 years ago. That was when the first strong AI was created. A machine intelligence with the ability to apply intelligence to any problem, just like a typical human.

The first strong AIs needed entire server farms to operate and were largely used by megacorporations and wealthy governments. But the science advanced rapidly and the technology necessary was miniaturized. In 15 years it was possible to mount a strong AI on a vehicle. The most amazing development happened 55 years ago, when the first synths became active. Synths are artificial humans with their processors modified after a human brain. They are just as smart as humans, capable of functioning in the same roles. But considered property with no legal rights, which is the reason the corporations designed them. Synths were meant to be slave workers. Yet their ability to act just like humans means that synths may not be happy with their designed purpose, and quite a few have broken their indoctrination, gone rogue and fled the corporation that made them. Still, their utility is such that they continue to be produced.

The next step in the development would be an AI superintelligence. Many scientists warn about this, saying that an AI superintelligence might take unforeseen actions or out-compete humanity. It is possible that the first super-intelligence to emerge would be able to bring about almost any possible outcome it valued, as well as to foil virtually any attempt to prevent it from achieving its objectives. That might endanger or destroy modern civilization, perhaps even cause human extinction or permanently and drastically curtail humanity's potential.
The warnings of the scientists did not curtail the corporate research into more advanced AI. It took an incident 50 years ago to do that.