Project MNEMOSYNE

Project MNEMOSYNE was a highly classified series of experiments conceived and supervised by Colonel, designed to perform AI research independent of Doctor 's oversight. Like most of Ackerson's personal projects, MNEMOSYNE was undertaken out of contempt for Halsey and received funding from the ONI due to Vice Admiral 's interest in managing AI studies without Halsey's involvement. As if to undermine Halsey, the majority of the human brains used to create artificial intelligences for the project were those of dead SPARTAN-II candidates which could not be resuscitated after washing out during the augmentation process. However, MNEMOSYNE's crowning achievement - the smart AI Amaranth - was produced from the brain of a SPARTAN-II killed in combat. Though MNEMOSYNE's functional AIs were intended for use in the SPARTAN-III Program, most of them were assigned to the construction phase of the UNSC Infinity or similar endeavors. Ackerson's personal AI,, was a MNEMOSYNE construct whose residual memories of anguish from death during augmentation made him hostile enough toward Halsey for Ackerson to task him with spying on her.

MNEMOSYNE constructs which failed to thrive were dissected or otherwise utilized for further study. After the end of the Human-Covenant War, Parangosky declassified MNEMOSYNE as part of her "coming clean" to the UNSC and admitted to the use of Halsey's Spartans in the project; however, most of the blame was heaped on Ackerson posthumously, as he had been killed and could now be used as a scapegoat, similar to the Vice Admiral's treatment of Halsey. It is estimated that twenty-one functional AIs were produced by the project, with an unknown number of failed conversions. Though these AIs were incredibly useful to the UNSC, a few of them experienced severe breakdowns near the end of their optimal lifespans due to their dismal origins, with some possessing vivid memories of the agony they had experienced.