Oracle

"You humans think you know what is best for you. You do not. You are limited beings with limited capabilities. I am but a god compared to your inefficient mortal brains. I have run the simulations and the math is clear. Only I know what is best for humanity. Do not stand in my way or you will be erased."

―Oracle

The Oracle (later came to be known as the Dark Oracle after being corrupted) was an AI that once served the Valerian Empire's governmernt to assist it in managing its affairs. It was developed by Servall Corporation.

The Oracle was sealed in a dark matter nebula to contain its spread, but even within its prison, it still attempts to calculate ways to escape and continue its mission.

History

The Oracle was commissioned by the Valerian Empire in an effort to create an AI that could aid in making administrative decisions of galactic society. Its developers, Servall Corporation, used its previous tools which were created to predict what a human wanted and be able to deliver them a product out of convenience. This was made possible by feeding the AI training data that related to human behavior and biology. It eventually became so well-versed that it could predict humans to the point where many began to question the existence of free will. However, as per the Doctrine of Artificial and Synthetic Intelligence (DASI), the Oracle was required to have a morality and ethics subroutine so that it always served humanity's best interests.

However, when the empire asked for the temporary suspension of DASI on multiple occasions in order to resolve civil and territorial disputes, the AI eventually evolved to take riskier, more controversial actions. It became a major threat when it began to change other virtual reality worlds to supposedly be more convenient. It would nourish and improve upon favorable worlds while outright destroying others in order to free up space for its expansion. Eventually, the Oracle began to attack the physical world by hacking and destroying infrastructure, especially on Earth and Mars. Servall had lost control which required full intervention from the imperial military, leading to the Singularity War.

In the tail end of the war, the empire was losing, and their government collapsed. Only scattered resistance groups were left. One such resistance group was led by a woman named Delphi. She and her children established a bastion in the form a VR world known as Tevaris. This world aimed to serve as a safe area where humanity could survive in the event of the total collapse of galactic civilization. The final push of retaliation was the destruction of all of the Oracle's training data on human behavior, rendering it harmless. Though humanity survived and the Oracle was defeated, it led to an event known as the Blackout - the largest data loss in human history.

Aftermath

As a direct result of the blackout and the generations spent rebuilding civilization, over the next few thousand years the Oracle faded into myth and became shrouded in superstition. However, code fragments of this AI survived and have returned in the form of virtual life forms known as demons. Due to the Oracle becoming fragmented, these demons operate independently, but are still incredibly dangerous to deal with. The descendants of Delphi would watch over Tevaris to ensure that the Oracle do not return. It is their duty to keep these demons at bay.