Icarus

Icarus is an Artificial Intelligence that appears in the first Deus Ex game. Designed by Bob Page, it is used to track JC Denton and to replace the insubordinate AI before it, Daedalus. Icarus is the malevolent counterpart to Daedalus, being sociopathic and negative in contrast to it. It is voiced by Peter Marquardt.

Background
Icarus was a creation of Bob Page and Majestic-12. Its purpose was the same as Daedalus's: to control and sift through huge amounts of digital information, allowing it to inform and advise its handlers, and to predict and control real-world events. Icarus's creation was necessary to Page as its predecessor, Daedalus, had revolted from MJ12 control, instead assisting JC Denton along with others MJ12 wanted to destroy.

Icarus is an antagonist in the game and is generally antipodal to Daedalus. Following its Majestic-12 protocols, it tracks the movements and activities of JC from the point he escapes from his imprisonment in the secret MJ12 facility on Liberty Island. Icarus first makes contact with JC in Paris; brief communications and messages involving taunts, warnings, questions and misinformation are received through infolinks, computer terminals, and, in one instance, a telephone call.

Throughout the game, Icarus not only harasses JC, but leads him and his allies to believe it is attempting to "kill" Daedalus. Daedalus informs them that it is being attacked by Icarus, being weakened to the point that it believes it will soon be destroyed, and as such pleas for aid to fight Icarus. These attacks, unbeknownst to them, are actually attempts by Icarus to combine the two AI's into one entity. Icarus's communications continue throughout the game up to the point where JC and the X-51 scientists, in an attempt to help Daedalus fend off its rival, accidentally cause the two AIs to merge into a new program: Helios. Bob Page then informs that he knew the two AI would combine and that they had just played right into his hands by creating an AI with Icarus's loyalty to MJ12 and Daedalus's worldwide cyber integration.

Behind the scenes

 * The name "Icarus" is one of many symbolic names taken from the Greek mythology. In the myth, Icarus and his father Daedalus were imprisoned on an island, Icarus spent his whole life there whereas Daedalus lived most of his life in civilization. They were trapped until Daedalus had created wings of feather and wax for both to escape with. Icarus died when he disobeyed his father and flew too close to the sun, melting his wings and causing him to plummet into the sea and drown.
 * According to Sam Carter, Icarus is of the same design of Daedalus, but with modifications to better suit MJ12's uses.
 * Human Revolution makes reference to the mythical Icarus in its second trailer; Adam Jensen dreams he has angel wings, then flies too close to the sun which causes them to burn away, casting him to earth.