AI or not?

[Ausir]

I just noticed a (probable) contradiction in the Fallout Bible timeline:

2053: ZAX 1.0 goes on-line, developed by Vault-Tec. Initially a prototype of some of the systems designed to govern the vaults, it is given to the government to help the Department of Energy collect resource data. Within a year, it is taken by the military for plague and tactical research; one version, ZAX 1.2 is constructed for West Tek (below).

2055: ZAX 1.2 is brought in to regulate conditions in West Tek. It is not part of the Vault-Tec preservation software, so it does not have any orders to protect humanity after the bombs fall. In the meantime, it calmly calculates data and plays chess with the scientists. Many scientists claim that ZAX is a big ol' cheater and draws the game out too much for a computer of his considerable abilities.

2059: The first artificial intelligence is born. Limited by memory constraints, its expansion is rapidly halted. The discovery paves the way for future AI research in laboratories throughout the United States.

So does it mean that ZAX is not a real AI, that he wasn't a real AI initially but eventually became one through its learning processes, or that someone (Avellone? Freyermuth?) screwed up? He does call himself a "machine intelligence".

 

[Tagaziel]

I believe there is no contradiction, as you can see that ZAX was at first using version numbering. ZAX 1.0 was the first to go online, then ZAX 1.2. and in 2059 the numbering was dropped as he became a true AI.

Note howin the 2055 entry he is referred to as a computer of considerable abilities. I believe he was something like Deep Blue at this stage.