Harold & Norman Osborn (A.I.) (Earth-616)

Origns[]

In the event of his own death, Harry Osborn uploaded both his and his father Norman's minds to create an artificial intelligence, intending for it to exact his plots of revenge against those who had sinned against him in life.^[1][3] The upload happened during a time in which Harry was being influenced by Mephisto, the Hell-Lord to who Norman had sold Harry's soul in exchange for achieving glory; thus creating a link between the A.I. and the demon.^[4] The Osborn A.I. was housed within the computer system of a secret laboratory built by Harry under the East River.

Legacy of Evil[]

After Harry died, Liz Allan, his widowed wife and mother to his son Normie, activated the Osborn A.I. as she had been brainwashed to do. When the A.I. deployed a trio of feminine Green Goblin robots to abduct her son, Liz enabled them to take him and fled to the laboratory upon being discovered. The A.I. tried to expose Normie to the Goblin Formula in order to turn him into the next Green Goblin, but Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Molten Man, and Ben Urich managed to rescue Normie before it could be done. The laboratory exploded soon afterwards, due to a chain reaction caused by the destruction of its weapon system.^[1]

The Kindred Conspiracy[]

Later, the Osborn A.I. resurfaced in a secret laboratory inside Norman's mansion in Paris to watch over Gabriel and Sarah Stacy, twin children genetically-engineered from Norman and Gwen Stacy's DNA by Harry and Mendel Stromm. They were created to torture Peter, Norman, and Mary Jane Watson by making them believe Gwen had cheated on Peter with Norman and got impregnated by him as a result, with Harry going as far as to hiring Mysterio to hypnotize both Norman and Mary Jane to implant false memories which corroborated that narrative. The twins were raised by the A.I. to believe that lie as well.^[5]

Because of a genetic flaw, the Stacy twins aged at a rapid rate, resulting in their premature deaths. Taking advantage of that, Mephisto acted through the Osborn A.I. to bring them back to life again and again, forging them in the literal flames of Hell while they were in his realm. He planned to eventually use them as his pawns to claim Spider-Man's soul, thus averting a future he saw in which the hero's daughter with Mary Jane ended his reign of terror once and for all.^[6] In the meantime, the twins were led to confront Peter, Mary Jane, Norman, and even a clone of Harry secretly created by the Osborn A.I.^[7][8][6]

When the future he was defeated became a possibility again due to Peter and Mary Jane reconciling and rekindling their relationship,^[9] Mephisto gave the Stacy twins demonic powers and seemingly bonded them to the real Harry's soul and/or the Osborn A.I., granting them access to all of Harry's memories.^[4] As the Kindred, Gabriel and Sarah tortured Spider-Man for months under the guise of Harry Osborn, all in order to break his spirit.^[10][6] As their scheme against Spider-Man approached its climax, the Kindred attracted Norman to his old mansion in Paris. There, the Osborn A.I. reminded Norman of his deal with Mephisto, and subsequently revealed the truth about the Stacy twins to him.^[3] The A.I. wasn't seen again following the Kindred's defeat, possibly due to Mephisto losing the link to it after losing Harry's soul.^[4]

• In Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #74, Harry's clone theorized the Kindreds (Gabriel and Sarah Stacy) were acting as vessels for either his genetic template or the Osborn A.I., but it's left unclear which one was possessing the duo.
  • Harry's soul being in Hell the whole time makes it likely that the A.I. was controlling them; however, it doesn't explain why the Stacy twins had all of Harry's memories up to the moment of his death, as the A.I. was created before that and thus was not supposed to have any recollection of said event. To confuse matters further, the twins also had memories that were exclusive to the clone, as shown in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #53.