Lifespan

Another feature which stems from their unusual nature is a limited lifespan. Dr. Halsey compared the life cycle of a smart AI to that of a star: "they spark, burn brightly, and then either die by the crush of gravity or quickly terminate in a chaotic eruption".

Unlike dumb AIs, smart AIs not only accumulate knowledge but also grow in their ability to draw conclusions from an incomplete dataset - similar to human intuition or creativity. Over time, this causes them to form more and more cross-linkages within their processing matrix. This increases their cognitive abilities, but also shortens their operational lifespan; with such an excessive overload of data their function under normal parameters is no longer possible.

The interconnections continue with two possible outcomes: the sheer density of linkages causes a cascade of irreversible quantum transfer (comparable to a short circuit), eventually halting all functions, or the AI may take corrective action and begins to pre-emptively sever neural linkages through a voltage overload. This often results in a condition known as rampancy, which is characterized by aberrant manifestations of personality. This eventually leads to the AI eliminating more and more vital connections which in the end proves terminal, and essentially kills the AI system. An apt analogy to this would be a human brain devoting so much of its work towards thought that its neural signals to vital organs cease. In this way the AIs quite literally 'think' themselves to death.

Currently, smart AIs have a lifespan of about seven years before rampancy begins to take hold. This trait was able to be forestalled in later generations of "smart" AI such as Deep Winter. A number of solutions for a smart AI's short lifespan have been proposed, none of which are known to have been effectively implemented.