T-AI

The name or term Ai refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Ai (disambiguation).

T-AI is an Autobot computer.

File:T-AI-colorsheet.jpg

I, am, your sing-ing tele-gram! *BANG!*

T-AI (pronounced "tie", short for Tactical Artificial Intelligence) is an Autobot computer system. She keeps tabs on events across Earth, coordinates Autobot forces across the globe, maintains the elaborate Global GroundBridge network, and generally keeps things running smoothly at the base... or as smoothly as possible considering the variety of odd personalities that make up the Autobot ranks. She is an incredibly advanced computer that displays distinct emotions, self-awareness, a sense of humor, and - perhaps most notably - the ability to lose her patience. She is quick to berate verbally any Autobot found slacking off or doing something dumb.

T-AI manifests herself with a holographic avatar, taking the form of a young human girl in a maroon uniform similar to a Japanese policewoman's. It's her own choice what the avatar looks like but why she's chosen to look like a human is something you'd have to ask her.

She considers herself the "daughter" of Teletraan I.

Notes

She weeps for her impending loss of dignity.

• Early concept designs of Ai emphasized the homophone with the English pronunciation of "I". This was dropped in the final design.Template:Fact
• Ai quietly weeps through the entirety of the end credits sequence of the Japanese Car Robots version of the series. Why is she crying? Is it because Fire Convoy is slowly coming to run her over? Is it because the end credits song, "Marionette", is ponderously poetic? Is it because she sees how TakaraTomy will turn her into a vacuous fan-service character in the future? We may never know.
• Whenever T-AI makes radio contact with any off-base Autobots, she initiates it by pressing a sequence of buttons on a keypad. Considering that these elements are all a part of the same computer, T-AI is in fact projecting and controlling the holographic representation of herself and making it use the keypad that controls T-AI, herself. She is effectively telling herself to tell herself what to do. If you also factor in the fact that the hologram is totally incorporeal, and therefore cannot actually make contact with the keypad, then the assorted beeps and lights that seemingly indicate when the buttons are being pressed are actually being controlled from within T-AI like a player piano, and therefore don't need to be pressed even if the hologram could press them. This gives us a headache.
• In Japanese continuity, Ai is a "Spherical Computer", akin to Vector Sigma of the original The Transformers cartoon.
• Ai is clearly the inspiration for the human policewoman Ai Kuruma in the Binaltech Asterisk line. Ai is based on a scan of Ai Kuruma, providing an in-universe explanation of the visual similarity.
• Ai's skimpy bikini armor in the Legends comic is based on Yoko Asagiri's bikini armor from Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Ai (アイ)

References

• More information on Ai at RID Forever