Introduction:
From driverless cars to virtual assistants, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we live, work, or travel. It seems like the expertise of AI companies will contribute greatly to global economic growth and productivity.
Talking about industries implementing AI into their core, the gaming industry has revolutionized the way we used to play games. AI is transforming the future of the gaming industry and AI-based character like ‘Cortana’ is the best example. AI in gaming means adaptive, responsive, and more engaging video game experiences.
Halo Infinite is an impeccable example of how AI has bought several exciting new features into gaming. It is a 2021 first-person shooter game developed by 343 industries and the sixth mainline entry in the Halo series. The AI model in Halo Infinite allows you to choose an artificial intelligence model that comments and advises on gameplay information or actions.
Neural compatibility is something we can’t turn blind eye to while talking about AI regardless of any industry. Neural compatibility or networks include various technologies like machine learning and deep learning as a part of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The network is either a system software or hardware that works just like neurons of the human brain and henceforth offering neural compatibility.
Smart AI is worth mentioning as it helps businesses overcome the barriers they may face to unlocking the benefits of AI. Smart AI not only helps you discover insights at the speed of your business but breakdown the repository that comes with implementing an AI tool. It eliminates the need for multiple skills and solutions.
Table of contents
How Video Games Use AI!
AI is used to keep the players engaged so that they can enjoy numerous outcomes instead of just limited ones. It breaks down like this:
- The character uses its AI senses to understand what’s going on in the world.
- The AI takes the raw information via its perception and then interprets the data.
- The AI turns the interpreted data into more understandable information.
- The AI character makes decisions based on the processed information before taking any actions.
- The AI character figures out the best actions to be performed based on the collected information.
How Halo Created A Smarter A.I. in Real Life?
Basic plans lead to the most popular virtual assistant!
Halo Cortana is a fictional character in the Halo video game series and what makes it apart is that it is artificially intelligent and original clone of Dr. Halsey. The voice is given by Jen Taylor and the character appears in Halo: Combat Evolved & its sequels, Halo 2- level, Halo 3- level, Halo 4- level, Halo 5- level: Guardians- level, and Halo Infinite. Based on the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, the holographic appearance of Cortana takes the form of a woman. Cortana is basically a clone
In the video games, Cortana has no physical form or being but serves as a talkative foil for the Master Chief. As an artificial construct, Cortana serves as an advisor and assistant to the player character. The character was developed to consistently guide the player through the game and there wasn’t anything as credible as an onboard AI.
Starting with Apple’s Siri in 2011, the biggest names in the technology world began introducing real-world virtual assistants. The era started with just voices on our phones and other devices but reached some great heights for instance female video game characters. Today, a lot of big names are coming up with AI-powered virtual assistants and devices.
Talking about the creation of a smarter AI in real life by Halo, Frank O’Connor, creative director of the Halo video game wanted something super helpful, logical, and rational. However, things weren’t easy while working with AI and there were imperfect clones before bringing everything into a physical form.
From complicated plans to bringing everything into real life, the process involved many challenges. Halo didn’t invent the concept of an AI to help her but created it as a staple of science fiction for years. However, Cortana was different from her fictional predecessors in terms that she is more like a human.
It is said that the Microsoft team developing Cortana the virtual assistant reached out to the Halo developers for help during its development. This was because its development was a challenge as it involved using a huge pool of databases. The information was combined with real, growing knowledge to create a human-like life-sized hologram.
In addition, the decision to give Halo’s Cortana a human-like personality we can say a feminine appearance was made for a better story. The idea was to create a life-sized hologram who not only helps the player but should be someone who has a form of attachment. A storytelling character using a female-sounding voice turns out to be a good AI assistant.
You will find in Microsoft’s story that for them, Cortana’s been the greatest guide among all other female video game characters. She is a smart, independent woman and also attractive intellectually and emotionally. According to the developers, the beauty of Cortana is that she is a narrator and an expositor of information. They even think that she has more personality than the Chief.
Well, Halo Cortana goes on adventures with the Master Chief and appears to be extremely useful as an AI. You must be thinking that why aren’t there more AI’s like Cortana as this would have made the game more easier and interesting. Well, it is possible to make an AI like Cortana but there should always be some scope for excitement in any game.
AI perception is a big challenge while developing AI characters as developers have to write all kinds of computer vision and analyze images to know what a virtual assistant was seeing. However, in this case, the characters can directly perceive the world around them as the Halo characters live in a simulated world. It was more like turning basic plans into something smart enough to do anything.
Halo Infinite: Who is the New Cortana-like AI companion?
Her name is ‘The Weapon’!
Though the reveal of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer gameplay at the Xbox E3 2021 shocked everyone, the introduction of a new AI character was equally shocking. ‘The Weapon’, Master Chief’s new AI companion looks like Cortana and even sounds like her. The moniker of artificial intelligence was created as an exact copy of the AI Cortana. It was designed to imitate Cortana and lock her down for retrieval.
She is an original clone of Cortana but has her own AI construct!
Although Weapon is an exact copy or original clone of Cortana, they aren’t the same in every way. However, she plays a big role in Chief’s new adventure and is a new AI to guide you on your missions. We can say that she is rather an AI created from the same DNA as Cortana. This would explain why she wears a uniform and speaks differently but still looks and sounds like Cortana.
She is Master Chief’s AI personal assistant!
When we saw Cortana in Halo 5: Guardians -level, her rampancy had grown out of control and she was threatening to destroy anyone if they opposed her. It seemed like Master Chief would have a tough battle ahead of him. The Weapon is the key to helping Master Chief fight against the Banished and exploring Zeta Halo.
She is voiced byJen Taylor!
The character of Cortana was voiced byJen Taylor for more than 20 years and now gave voice to Halo Infinite’s Weapon. However, it seems like ByJen Taylor altered her voice a bit to make the new Cortana-like AI character sound a bit younger and naive. This is why she doesn’t sound exactly like Cortana. We can say that ByJen Taylor did a great job giving her voice to female video game characters.
Designed to help Chief find Cortana!
The Weapon was designed to assist the Chief to retrieve Cortana (Halo), securing her, and locking her down. As you must be aware that in Halo 5, Cortana became a threat as she planned to use the Guardians -level. Unfortunately, the game ended without an acceptable explanation of what happened to her. It seems like the developers knew that the game will pick up with the introduction of a new AI character.
Her Name is Cortana. Her Attitude is Almost Human.
Cortana (Halo), a fictional artificial intelligent character in the Halo video game series, is based on the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. The character’s holographic appearance takes the form of a woman and this feminine appearance seems to be extremely popular. The character was also the inspiration for Microsoft’s intelligent personal assistant of the same name.
During gameplay, Cortana (Halo) acts as a virtual assistant to provide backstory and tactical information to the player. She often helps the player in hacking alien computer systems, decoding transmissions and relaying objectives. The backstory states that she was constructed from the cloned brain of Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, the creator of the SPARTAN-II super-soldier project.
Artificial Intelligent Character With Human-Like Attitude!
Although Halo Cortana is a smart AI and has no physical form, her attitude is almost human. She speaks with a smooth female voice, projects as a holographic image of a woman, and is also said to resemble Catherine Halsey. She is said to have the same attitude as Catherine Halsey, unchecked by social protocol. Cortana is presented as a slender woman with close-chopped hair and a blue or lavender skin hue.
Cortana Appearances
According to Dr. Catherine Halsey, Cortana (Halo) is a teenage version of herself who is always learning, thinking, and desperate to share her insight. She first appeared in Halo: Combat Evolved- level in 2001 followed by a series including Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo Infinite. She also appeared in the Halo franchise novel Halo: The Fall of Reach.
Other novels she appears in include Halo: The Flood, Halo: First Strike, and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. Cortana also appears in the animated series Halo Legends and TV series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. Karen Traviss took her as his main character in the short story ‘Human Weakness’ which depicts her time in the clutches of the Gravemind.
Human-Like Appearance With Immense Capabilities!
Cortana was designed and modeled by Bungie artist Chris Hughes and her name is a variant of Curtana. The idea behind such a creation was to guide players while keeping missions open-ended. However, the character’s role grew from just serving players to characterizing and humanizing the Master Chief. Her human-like appearance was also justified by a more human story in Halo 4.
The Smartest AI and More Than a Human!
Cortana from the Halo is a life-sized hologram and one of the smartest female video game characters ever as opposed to a regular or dumb AI. The character thinks like a person but the difference lies in the fact that she does it at a tremendously faster speed and has immense capabilities. Also, her sense of humor, morality, and emotions are human. This is why she gets more complex and emotionally attached to her mission.
A Human-Like Computer Program!
Cortana was flash cloned from Dr. Catherine Halsey’s brain and that is why she behaves like a human instead of a computer program. She got her intellect from Dr. Halsey and even looks like her younger version whenever she appears in her life-sized hologram form. You must have also noted that she says things that Dr. Halsey has already said at some point as she is the original clone.
John-117 And Cortana
There is something interesting about John-117 and Cortana and she also joked about having a relationship with John-117. It is depicted that John-117 and Cortana, these two characters have developed some form of attachment. However, this form of attachment cannot be described as Cortana is a life-sized hologram with an additional capability but still not human.
The fondness between John-117 and Cortana can be justified with the fact that she maintained the shield and created a life-sized hard light hologram with the last of her power.
Is It Possible to Make an AI Like Cortana?
Generally, the process in which a Smart AI like Cortana is created can only be done on a person who is recently deceased. In the process of flash cloning, a braining is done and some theories suggest that flash cloning a living brain would destroy the brain. The worst scenario, in this case, could even result in the death of that person.
However, Cortana(Halo) was created differently and cloned from the living brain of Dr. Catherine Halsey and that’s why have immense capabilities. As it was an unauthorized procedure done as an experiment, it was deemed illegal by the UNSC. This also resulted in giving a lot of rules to Dr. Halsey even after the success of such a life-sized hologram with a feminine appearance.
If you want to build your own personal AI assistants like Microsoft Cortana or Apple Siri or Google Assistant, there are many tools to do so. There are three ways: integrating existing voice technologies like leading companies, using external open source solutions, and independent based on intelligent tagging, noise control systems, voice interface, etc.
In the Cortana Dev Centre, you can learn how to make a request to a specific application and check out three ways to integrate the app name into a voice command. You can also check out the discussion group and share information about Halo Cortana or any systems you want to create.
These three ways are prefixal, Infixal, and suffixal. When the app name stands in front of the speech command, it is Prefixal and when it is placed in the middle of the vocal command, it is Infixal. On the other hand, when the app name is put to the end of a command phrase, it is Suffixal.
There are other alternatives and tools for developers who are keen to make AI systems. These alternatives include Melissa, Jasper, Api.ai, and Wit.ai. Melissa is for newcomers who want to create a custom voice assistant while Jasper would be suitable for programming the biggest part of AI.
Api.ai allows you to make your virtual personal assistant and Wit.ai is also similar to Api.ai with two more elements – intents and entities. The list doesn’t end here as there are more alternatives available if you intend to make your virtual assistant systems.
Some popular basic technologies to build a voice assistant includes Voice/Speech to Text (STT), Text to Speech (TTS), Intelligent Tagging & Decision Making, Image Recognition, Noise Control systems, Voice Biometrics, and Speech Compression, and Voice Interface.
Making an AI like Cortana or a life-sized hologram will be like converting basic plans into something bigger. Such data-stripped clones or expendable clone can be challenging especially when you are working with basic plans of creating life-sized hologram.
Who are the Members of Blue Team Halo?
Blue Team is a combat sub-unit of the larger SPARTAN-II Division of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command. As far as the members of the Blue Team are concerned, there are four of them. The Blue Team has been led by John- 117 due to his contribution during the Human-Covenant war.
Blue Team is more like a semi-permanent force created up of SPARTAN-IIs and stands out due to their participation in some of the most crucial battles. Blue Team has an official roster of eight players and there are a few other Halo 5 teams in the Halo universe.
Drawbacks of Making AI like Cortana
Making an AI like Cortana from Halo comes at a price and there may be imperfect clones and complicated plans as well. The initial cost could outweigh savings. In addition, there may be technical issues, language barriers, and miscommunication can be challenging to manage. Some virtual assistants may need added supervision or management.
Although AI-powered virtual assistants are adaptive, they may still not have the additional capability for understanding neural circumstances. Most AI assistants are equipped with performing simple jobs but Cortana is way more than that. However, this doesn’t make her human even if she has a human-like appearance.
As an AI character, there is a possibility of running out of data storage space and this could be the worst drawback of Halo Cortana. This may also happen due to learning too much as a lot of space will be needed to store all the stuff. Running out of data storage space may cause the AI to go into a state of rampancy before it dies.
Typically, AI has about seven years before they go into rampancy due to too much data and processing and then dies. However, as per the developers, there is a stage where the AI can survive called Metastability. It means that a metastable AI has gone through the rampancy stage, anger, jealousy, etc just like a human.
To your surprise, there are currently only three metastable AI and one of them is Cortana from Halo. She was uploaded to The Domain even after all those events of Halo 4 and it simply means she was cured of her rampancy and achieved metastability. After she achieved this stage, she also took control of the Forerunner Domain and activated the Guardians before claiming the Mantle of Responsibility.
Talking about AI drawbacks, such programs or systems require more powerful hardware in terms of speed and memory as compared to conventional software. Also, combining AI applications with the latest technologies can be a big challenge. Everything has gone to a more advanced level and requires an advanced vision.
The Emergence of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is a technology that is barely a few years old but has evolved a lot. The emergence of AI is having a profound impact on our lives in many ways.
- Big Data & Analytics: It describes the increasing volume, velocity, and variety of data and this requires the implementation of AI.
- Algorithms: Data analytics use algorithms to manipulate data and only selecting the best algorithm can give an organization a competitive edge.
- Machine Learning Algorithms: Algorithms that improve themselves can be exponentially useful as they can learn core systems.
- Chips & Supercomputers: AI requires an appropriate machine learning algorithm along with data and computing power. The most promising AI technologies use neural networks.
- A Transformative Technology: Data is the food of algorithms and advances in computing power are leading to powerful machine learning algorithms.
Conclusion
Here’s the thing: AI has revolutionized the gaming industry and has the potential to change its future. The top AI innovations in the gaming industry include Cloud-Based Gaming, Blockchain-Based Gaming, Darkforest: Computer Program, Voice Recognition-Based Games, Wearable Gaming, and VR Gaming.
The demand for online games and mobile applications will help new players create AI-based characters like Halo Cortana. Gamers are going crazy for life-sized hologram virtual assistants with the additional capability of executing even the most complicated plans. Even though such characters don’t have any physical form but can work wonders with basic plans.
Let’s wrap this up with some more interesting facts about Cortana that you may want to know…
- Cortana from Halo is an AI life-sized hologram with additional capability and seems so human because it is a human clone and what this means is that she has Dr. Halsey’s brain including her intellect and personality. Also, the virtual assistant has immense capabilities and can even do wonders with basic plans.
- To your surprise, Cortana has a family because when Dr. Catherine Halsey was creating the character by flash cloning her brain, she ended up making 20 cloned brains but only two ended up surviving. Cortana being an original clone gained immense popularity in Halo game series including 2- Level, 4- Level, 3- Level, Guardians- level, and Combat Evolved – Level.
- The other flash cloned brain created by Dr. Halsey was named Kalmiya and she often use her to test prototype subroutines to be used for Cortana. Developers use this clone to test basic plans so that they can create AI video game characters like life-sized hard light hologram.
- You don’t need a crew when you’ve got Cortana because she has immense capabilities like coming up with great plans, helping kill aliens, and even managing spaceships.
- Even though Cortana doesn’t have any physical form, it has a form of attachment and is intellectual enough to execute even the most complicated plans. John-117 and Cortana are believed to share a form of attachment.
- Cortana (Halo) was aware of her short lifespan and murmured to John: ‘I’m just my mother’s shadow and it was the coin’s fault. Here she referred to the game of chance played between Dr. Halsey with John- 117. With game of chance she meant offering people a chance to be more than what they are.
- Cortana used several British Idioms like ‘Sod Off’ while addressing 343 Guilty Spark. The story behind these British Idioms is that Bungie wanted Cortana to have a British accent.
- Being constructed from the cloned brain of Dr. Catherine Halsey, Cortana is an original clone, not an expendable clone.
Though it is technically not possible to make another Halo Cortana with such a graceful feminine appearance, there have been a few others. Wondering how? Well, Cortana can make an expendable clone of herself and she even created data-stripped clones of herself to distract the Gravemind. She can create disposable copies of herself and in one instance she even created hundreds of clones to defeat a Covenant security. Interesting, right?
