A quick note on AI gender pronouns

A note from Rick Osborne, the author:

I have chosen in this text to use gender-neutral pronouns for AIs: “it”, “they”. This includes AIs with female presentation (GAIA), arguably male-sounding voices (HADES), or potentially non-binary (CYAN). The original game uses a combination of “it” and gendered pronouns in various combinations.

My intent here is not to de-personalize the AIs, nor to in any way cast them as other. Similarly, my use of “they” is in no way an attempt to group non-binary people who chose to use that pronoun with inhuman AIs, somehow implying otherness for the former. However, English is currently not great at pronouns which signal neutral or unknown gender. Which is unfortunate.

I also have no problem admitting that writing pronoun-free text which still makes sense is beyond my abilities at the moment.

If my usage here is misaligned with how you choose to use pronouns around your game table, I am truly sorry. You should feel free to use the pronouns which make the most sense to you and your group, and should not consider my usage in these modules normative.

-R