After the MK74 Pathfinder crisis of 230, most researches on high performance robotic AIs were put on hold. Indeed, this event was a glaring proof that things needed to change in order for robotics to progress without being twisted and corrupted like the MK74 ended up being.

And so, the brightest minds of Sector 8 teamed up and started researches on how to make sure such a tragedy never happens again. As years went on, they would go on to conceive a new kind of robot, the likes of which Sector 8 had never seen before.

Named AIR '(Autonomous Individualized Robot) units, these androids were gifted with synthetic minds and free will, each being a person of their own. The AIR Initiative, as it was quickly named, was as much a technological revolution as it was a social experiment, one that would seek to see what happens when humans live along artificial beings of a similar mind.

And the AIR Initiative all began with this unit here, AIR-U000 "Novel".

Novel is the first AIR unit to have been brought online, and in a way she serves as a template for all the following units, which has brought some of them to consider her as a big sister of sorts.

Novel's history begins with the design of her synthetic mind, the first AI to be able to think freely, like a human. During a period of 6 years, she went through multiple moral and psychological tests, as well as malware exposure. The goal was to make sure her mind was stable and uncorruptible.

Once that period was finished and validated, Novel's mind was eventually injected into her current body, which was made according to her desire.

And thus she, and the AIRs as a concept, were revealed publicly in 236.

Now, in 240, it would seem that the bet that the AIR Initiative was paid off, as, while still scarce on the Sector's scale, AIR units are nonetheless widely appreciated by human society, with some even joining guilds.