: ...

: Biggest brow-furrowing with this one - is there precedent that human memories
: are retained in the creation of Smart AIs? I didn't think that was the
: case, but maybe I'm wrong. Or at least, maybe there are conflicting
: examples among known AIs.

Sure. There was ILB, and then there was stuff of questionable canonicity in Halo Wars (just because it never all made it into the game.)

The bigger point is that from what BB describes, it doesn't sound like what we're hearing is really a new smart AI so much as the reconstructed FERO, done so that they could piece together what happened on the planet. Whatever AI results from the use of Mia's brain, I doubt it'll have any knowledge of its background, just like apparently most AIs don't (BB even having the option and declining it was a special case.)