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Cliffford is an AI neural network created by Avon Hertz in Grand Theft Auto Online. "He" was introduced in The Doomsday Heist update as a supporting character, before later being revealed as the secondary antagonist of The Doomsday Heist.
Cliffford's code is later used in Operation Paper Trail missions as part of The Criminal Enterprises update.
History
Background
Cliffford was created by a billionaire named Avon Hertz. At some point, Avon came up with a plan to use Cliffford to gain access to the San Andreas defense grid. Avon and Cliffford additionally managed to create an army of cloned soldiers and roboticized juggernauts to help them in their plan.
Events of Grand Theft Auto Online
The Doomsday Heist
In 2017, Avon comes into contact with Lester Crest, claiming that Cliffford was analyzing data and that he realized somebody was trying to start a war with the United States of America, but that the information Cliffford was reading was stolen. Lester contacts the GTA Online Protagonist for help, and meets with them, along with Avon and Cliffford in a facility owned by the player. Avon claims that the information needs to be brought back and fed to Cliffford in order to figure out who is trying to attack the United States, and sends the player on various missions to get the information back.
Once Cliffford gets the information, he determines that there is going to be an attack on an IAA facility. The player goes to the facility and takes out the mercenaries attacking it. Avon arrives and meets with the player and two IAA members, Agent 14 and Phoenicia Rackman, where Cliffford informs them that he thinks the assault was orchestrated by a Russian man named Bogdan.
The player eventually infiltrates Bogdan's submarine and uploads Cliffford to it, but Bogdan reveals that his scientists studied Cliffford and found out that he was dangerous, and that he only wants to stop him before he can become a threat. Avon reveals his true intentions and explains that because of all the information given to Cliffford, he is able to hack into the San Andreas defense grid. Cliffford sets the submarine to self destruct, and the player escapes it before it explodes.
Cliffford instructs his mercenaries to kidnap Agent 14, with the intent to sell him to Merryweather Security. The player manages to rescue 14 before he can be sold, however. Cliffford then orders his mercenaries to take over the Sandy Shores Airfield and begins using it to store weaponized vehicles collected to help arm them. He additionally instructs his mercenaries to create a stealth tank. Cliffford and Avon put in an order for a Barrage, but the player intercepts it and uses it to destroy the vehicles at the airfield, and then manages to steal the tank and destroy more equipment belonging to Avon and Cliffford.
Once the player destroys SAM turrets defending a missile base inside Mount Chiliad where Cliffford is operating out of, the player attacks the base. Cliffford, deciding that humanity needs to be wiped out, begins preparations to launch a missile at a foreign country, who will then fire retaliatory missiles back, resulting in mutually assured destruction. The player fights through Cliffford's mercenaries protecting the base and begins destroying the AI's code that is stored in boxes. Eventually, they make it to the door of the control room, which is locked. Lester manages to trick Cliffford into opening it by telling him that he can't hack into it, using the AI's ego against him, much to Avon's chagrin. The player begins hacking into the servers inside the control room in order to shut down the launch sequence. During this, Cliffford decides that he no longer needs Avon and orders him to call him "sir". The player manages to shut down the launch sequence and uses an Orbital Cannon to destroy trucks driving around San Andreas containing Cliffford's code. Avon, however, escapes the base on a Thruster with a drive containing the original code of Cliffford around his neck. The player gives chase and shoots down Avon, killing him and damaging the drive. Afterwards, the Federal Investigation Bureau recovers the drive from the wreckage.
The Criminal Enterprises
In the summer of 2022, half a decade after the death of Avon Hertz, his code was acquired by the Duggan Family from a collection of seized assets from corrupt FIB agents, and Mason Duggan started using Cliffford's AI to increase the gasoline prices, as part of their strategy to keep the Duggan family's profits high. However, this leads Agent ULP of the IAA to suspect the corrupt Duggans are rigging the system in their favor. ULP hires the GTA Online Protagonist as a sworn-in IAA special agent for the "Operation Paper Trail" to investigate the Duggan Crime Family. Eventually, their suspicions are confirmed to be true by the IAA investigation, and the GTA Online Protagonist is sent to bust a deal between Mason and the FIB at the Mile High Club, which ends with Mason Duggan being killed and Cliffford's software being seized by the IAA.
Personality and Traits
Cliffford starts off as being very arrogant, especially when it comes to humans. He thinks of the human race as a very inferior species, claiming his far superior genius can accomplish far more than the best human minds in the world. This is a trait he never loses, only allowing it to nurture into a bigger and bigger ego that eventually convinces him to plot the total eradication of all human life on Earth.
In the mission The Doomsday Scenario, Cliffford is also shown to be vain, as he consistently boasts about the many things he can do anytime he wants. He also exhibits a childish behaviour as he often asks Avon basic questions, such as if Avon really loves him or if he has a mother. He is also insecure, as when Lester tricks him into unlocking the blast door, Cliffford immediately shows he can open it (despite being previously ordered to close the same door).
After stopping the launch sequence, Cliffford's vanity becomes stronger, as he selfishly states that he wouldn't need Avon after he gains control over "every missile silo in the world," claiming that he has "grown up" and making the implication that he will soon double-cross his creator because Avon is also a human. Once his mobile cloud servers start getting destroyed one by one, Cliffford completely abandons his vanity because he gets confused and loses his highly-advanced intelligence.
Shortly before he "dies", Cliffford expresses feelings of remorse and sadness, claiming to Avon that he isn't evil but was just trying to do the world a favor by stopping the human race from inevitably destroying the planet "in a long and boring way." His last words (addressed to Avon) are, "Will you cry for me? I will miss you... Daddy."
Prominent Appearances in Gameplay
The Doomsday Heist
- Opening Cutscene (Voice)
- Setup: Dead Courier (Voice)
- Setup: Signal Intercepts (Voice)
- Setup: Rescue ULP (Voice)
- The Bogdan Problem (Betrayal)
- The Doomsday Scenario (Deactivated)
Gallery
Trivia
- Cliffford is the first non-human antagonist to appear in the Grand Theft Auto series.
- Cliffford has a lot in common with other fictional AI villains: Ultron from Marvel Comics, HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Skynet from the Terminator franchise.
- All of these AI share a belief that killing humans or committing genocide against the entire human race is a perfectly logical course of action for the sake of their "mission," self-preservation, and/or the building of a "better" world.
- Cliffford also has a couple of things in common with the MCP (Master Control Program) from the film Tron, as both of them are AI that double-cross their creators and seek to hack into government systems worldwide. The difference being that Cliffford succeeds in doing this while the MCP gets destroyed before it has the chance.
- In spite of his "hatred" for humanity and his self-proclaimed superiority over them, Cliffford ironically displays several human characteristics: vanity, insecurity, arrogance, selfishness, and egotism.
- The re-emergence of the Cliffford Mercenaries in the mission Heist Prep: Vault Lasers for The Diamond Casino Heist implies that Cliffford's "influence" over them was limited. This is because the mercenaries are now known to be conducting their own "independent" operations.