Everyone likes sci-fi. Star Wars, halo, Star Trek, etc. all these franchises have something in common: they depict AIs working alongside humans. I think that it’s an important demonstration of cognitive dissonance about AI. Fans of these franchises aren’t bothered by the glaring contradictions that some fictional elements create. For example, Star Trek features transporters that teleport people across space and in reality the existence of such a machine would change the economics of many different things very drastically. Life would look a lot different if teleportation were allowed to effect the economics of human life. Another example is communication technology. Star Trek had what we now call smart phones. But they still lived their lives the way people did in the 80s. We now know that when smart phones are present, people stare at them all the time, don’t go out much, are never in trouble because they can’t communicate (car broken down) and etc. it’s not the best example but it’s the only one that actually played out irl. My point here is that people in general do not seem to appreciate the change in economics that are prompted by new things — people are only able to imagine some new technology being used in some niche case. It doesn’t bother anyone, or break their suspension of disbelief, when some groundbreaking new technology completely fails to alter the world and society in a realistic way in a fictional setting. But any other breach of “realism” is somehow very offending.

In halo, you have an AI that lives in your power armor and her name is Cortana. Cortana can sense what you see, hear, etc. Cortana is seen to be super smart on multiple occasions and it is clear to the player. This doesn’t bother anyone. It bothers me now, though. If all of this is true, the following would happen.

Cortana senses the presence of enemies faster than you. she hears them and is able to identify how many based on their foot steps. She becomes annoyed with how sloppy you are, how many enemies you didn’t even notice and how slow you are to respond to them. She suggests that she take over your power suit. You find yourself in a situation you can’t handle and are forced to give her the reigns. She jumps into action dispatching enemies with speed and accuracy that you’ve never seen before. She shoots enemies as they step out from cover. Your movements are so fast that you vomit. She wipes out army after army as you passively watch, bewildered.

As you go through the game, you are on a mission to unravel the mysteries of halo and find a way to survive. Cortana assesses the battle space and concludes that you need to travel east. She notices several patterns of ancient runes and directs you to investigate a hidden passage. Her assessments seem incredible and bizarre but they consistently prove to be correct and eventually she ends up making every decision.

At the end of the day, if Halo were real then it would be a story about a man who passively sat inside a suit and watched an ai save the world. He probably would die in the suit at some point due to experiencing high g forces during some adventurous fight or maneuver and it would be a story about an ai who saved the world with a dead guy in the suit. It doesn’t make you feel warm and fuzzy like halo is supposed to, does it?