We had reported last month that a video game artist revealed that his employers had banned AI generated art completely. But of course, this brought up the discourse around AI as we know it right now.

It must be said, since it seems the people who have reacted angrily don’t even see it, but it is quite fitting for a character as hateful of humanity as SHODAN to be using technology that is unpopular with humans right now. #SHODAN #SystemShock #midjourney #rogueAI /i4Gwi2bpdQ- System Shock April 28, 2023 Imagine, how would my immortal body look like?ĭesigned by an immortal machine for an immortal machine. Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone. SHODAN, short for Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network, is simultaneously a warning of the dangers of technology run amuck, and a really funny character. These real life developments in AI, alongside pop culture phenomena like the novel I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream and the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, probably coalesced to inspire Warren Spector in developing SHODAN. At this time, AI development had moved away from being primarily government projects, to being funded as private enterprises. Carnegie Mellon’s chess supercomputer Deep Blue was three years away from beating grandmaster Garry Kasparov. In 1994, the year System Shock was originally released, AI was a completely different proposition than it is now. Instead it’s SHODAN, the fictional AI who has entertained gamers for decades for her hammy characterization as a malevolent force eager to destroy humanity. However, many players were angry with the tweet from Nightdive Studios.As every self-respecting System Shock fan knows, the most important character in the franchise is not the protagonist. It is not the first time we have seen art created by AI, and actually it is an AI itself. How can you challenge a perfect machine? Imagine, what would my immortal body be like? Designed by an immortal machine for an immortal machine”. ” Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of flesh and blood. #SHODAN #SystemShock #midjourney #rogueAI /i4Gwi2bpdQ

No one actually designed this image, as it was the work of technology midjourney. Nightdive’s tweet shows an AI generated Shodan art, which is neat, but also disappointing news for many gamers. Or, rather, they played with a hot topic in recent days, and that many professionals interpret as a threat to their jobs (they are right).

System shock shodan art