Artificial intelligence

Legally restricted to human-inferior in at least one capacity. Personal AIs/assistants are common but strong/human-equivalent AI officially doesn't exist and research into producing one is considered extremely dangerous. Unofficially, slaved AIs are used as security and research tools by a lot of the corporations in the inner and outer systems, and more than a few have escaped into general circulation. They tend to masquerade as digital humans or much dumber than they are. Colonies tend to be equipped with a number of coordination and processing AIs shackled to limited intelligence, but given the age of many colonies and lax robopsychology staff, some AIs may have grown in complexity beyond their legal limits.