After thousands of hours in the scientist’s presence, much of Liao’s behaviors (including her speech), were adopted by the Echo robot. However, the truth was that Liao had programmed Echo with a powerful, general artificial intelligence that learned by observation.

Echo was used successfully on test missions alongside Overwatch strike teams, but Overwatch leadership was reluctant to put it into full service. Instead, she created a multirole, adaptive robot that could be programmed to learn different functions-anything from medical support to construction-but had serious limits to its independent decision-making, including multiple layers of protections, fail-safes, and security to keep it under control. After the Crisis, she dreamed of improving upon the original omnic designs, but Overwatch’s restrictions on artificial intelligence research and development forced her to limit the parameters of her new Echo project. Ultimately, it was this expertise that led her to be recruited into Overwatch to help stop her creations.Įven that catastrophe was not enough to dissuade Liao of her firmly held belief in the potential of artificial life and its power to transform the world for the better. There she worked on the team that was responsible for the design and creation of the omnics that would later wage war against humanity during the Omnic Crisis. Prior to joining the organization, Liao was widely considered one of the preeminent experts in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, and an employee of Omnica Corporation.

Mina Liao, one of the founding members of Overwatch.

To chart the origins of the Echo project, it is important to delve into the personal history of Singaporean scientist Dr.

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