Lore question about Cardinal

[Lestrad]

For anyone whose dived more into the series outside of just the anime, I feel like I'm missing something on Cardinal.

She all but directly states that she is, in fact THE Cardinal that operated Aincrad. Yet on several accounts throughout the game, she acts as though she doesn't know anything about Kirito or Asuna, but does know about the real world and that it's all just a video game.

Personally I find this incredibly odd because, outside of the rest of Kirito's band and Heathcliff, if Cardinal remembered anyone I would expect it to be Asuna and Kirito (the two people who beat the death game, and her creator). Even if the Cardinal in Aincrad was cloned to make the version present in this game, I would expect her to be much more familiar with Kirito and co's capabilities than she at least seems to let on.

Am I missing something lore wise here?

[TwinChops]

She is the part of Cardinal thats there for the error correction.
When Admin chosed her Body as a first canidate for her memory transfer stuff she seperated herself from the main program and transferred right into the new body, to correct that very big error that is Admin herself.
She failed at that task and then was forced to isolate herself in the libary where she had alone control over the doors, and thats also the reason why its kinda hard for her to know whats up in the outside world.
And no, shes not a "clone" from the OG cardinal, its more like with our Windows, cardinal is a operation system in that sense.

[Solo Swordsman]

The Cardinal system is an operating system. Not an entity. Think of it as a computer with windows installed. Just because that computer has windows doesn't mean it has the memory data of another computer that also has windows installed.

The Cardinal system of the Underworld is an older version that was included in the seed package Kayaba gave to Kirito after the ALO situation, think of it is Cardinal ver. 0.9 while the one that ran SAO was ver. 1.0 the final complete version. Once Cardinal herself gains sentience she realizes that the world she is in is a virtual world. Nothing she says about the real world is fact, just her best guesses at what may be the truth.

[Lestrad]

So Cardinal (in SAO) wasn't an AI? She certainly seemed that way from how Yui and Strea talked about her. If there was no base intelligence to begin with (unlike someone such as Kizmel who was heavily bound to the rules of the game, but could still act lifelike within those assigned constraints, unlike Yui who could basically do whatever shw wanted), it's kind of hard to believe Cardinal could give itself enough artificial intelligence to be capable of gaining sentience.

Unless they're trying to insinuate that the person who created Underworld was more of a savant at programming than even Kayaba, which also seems odd because that person has not so much as been mentioned/identified as far as I am aware.

[Solo Swordsman]

The Cardinal system in SAO was an AI. But a top down AI, without consciousness. It couldn't think or feel anything. It was just a super advanced program that ran scripts to verify file integrity, generate new content from web data, and the like.

What you're forgetting about the Cardinal in Underworld is that she too started off as a program. But Administrator screwed up and imprinted the Cardinal program into her fluctlight, thus making it have a soul/fluctlight. The Cardinal from Underworld is very much a bugged program. She only exists due to happenstance.

Also about Yui. It's possible for top down AI to begin seeming more and more intelligent too the point of being on the level of a human. But Yui even states it herself, that even the tears she shed aren't actually real. They're just a learned behavior that she's mimicking. She is still very much bound to her core operational procedures. It's just that with more humans interacting with her she has gained more data to assess and mimic. She was a mental health counseling program after all, she's seen a lot of emotions, which is why she's so human like.

[54R-R1A The Ai Witch of Insanity]

it kinda touched on by others already but if i were to add anything it be:
there could also be a secondary difference since the seed was at least surface level used for and intended for full dive, where as underworld is one step further and soul diving (i dont remember if there is a proper term that can or ever was used)
the difference in tech used, though seemingly compatible with the seed, perhaps also could have further messed with the seed itself being used on it

my point with this is how you can change the hardware of a device but keep the software the same and you may get better/worse performance of the software or perhaps unintended errors, ect
if i recall they only used the seed for underworld seemingly cuz they wouldnt have to build everything from the ground up since most they wanted they could start with it anyways tweaking where they felt needed till they felt ready to leave it alone mostly, this itself perhaps also having some other factors as well (outside giving the would be npc souls to then kick all the other stuff off i mean)

[Lestrad]

Interesting... Sad, in a way, because it sort of takes away from the accomplishments of the god-tier programmer Kayaba and what he was able to accomplish with Yui and Kizmel. Does leave one curious as to if they'll ever explain who the actual developer of Underworld. Though with how Kayaba is portrayed, even in death, as a savant-grade genious (the way he was able to manifest in ALO) I cant see it being anyone who didn't work directly with him on SAO.

It does make you wonder though, what would happen to someone like Fanatio, etc, if they found out that their world wasn't real and that it was all just a big game meant for people from the real world...