I love the AI vs debate;
If you buy an AI just to buy an AI, you won't be disappointed. AI's are quality guns. They perform well. But that could be said about just about any gun in that price range.
AI was it and a bit up until about 2010, then modern manufacturing caught up. Now, AI is just another gun. There are people who wax lyrical about the AI's build quality and survivability, but these people are living a fantasy where in some pretty dramatic shit happens to their gun and instead of just going home from the range, they have to save the world.
.... *dream music plays*....
The world has come to an end. Starvation has taken over. People have become tribalist. Resources are poor. There's only 1 gun you can trust to function until the rapture is over. AI. Listen to this testimonial from this guy that goes to the range, then home again;
"I'm heading to a casual range trip as part of an elite 6 man team that I was hand selected for after I shit posted on Sniper's Hide. We are in our Blackhawk that I make land on my front lawn because I don't do cardio. On the way to the range, a FUCKIN SAM COMES SCREAMING IN! IT HITS THE BLACKHAWKS TAIL ROTOR AND THE HELO IMMEDIATELY STARTS TO SPIN OUT OF CONTROL. ALL MY SQUAD MATES ARE KILLED AS THEY ARE FLUNG OUT THE DOORS. THE PILOT DIES OF SHAME AS HE BOUGHT A DESERT TECH INSTEAD OF AN AI, LEAVING ONLY THE CO-PILOT TO TRY TO LAND US. WE SPUD IN HARD...... I regain conciousness some time later.... I get up, and dust myself off. Not a scratch. I attributed this to watching 1 of Garand Thumbs Mountain Survival videos mostly the way through on youtube... I look around to get my bearings and, OMG, HITLER HAS BEEN REINCARNATED AND IS LEADING A BATTALION OF TALIBAN ISIS ELITE KGB ZOMBIES! I looked around and saw, about 3 metres away, perfectly in my jogging distance, my AI. It'd survived a 2 story drop onto the barrel, butt and also cocking handle simultaneously, but also individually. I checked and knew by feel that the gun was still zeroed. And that's when I knew, it was game time. I raised the AI as only an AI raises, and squeezed the trigger. Years of not training took over as I entered rage mode. Everything faded to black. I woke up surrounded by thousands of bodies laying at my feet. The smell of gun powder, death and pure testosterone filled the air. I stared down at the AI in my hands. It functioned flawlessley. So did the optics and mounts but I don't give credit there.... It was then that I remembered the Co-Pilot was still in their seat. With pure adrenaline coursing through my veins I ripped the cockpit door open and off it's hinges, and grabbed the co-pilot from their seat as a spark from the Auxilliary power system finally met the leaking Av-Gas. I dove forward as a powerful explosion ripped apart the Blackhawk, disintegrating everything within a 15m radius into a charred mass of waste. We'd survived. Or had we? I quickly tried to reach for a carrotid pulse that i'm pretty sure is in the wrist that I remember learning from signing up to a First Aid course that I never attended. No Pulse. I quickly unsnapped the Co-Pilots chin strap and ripped their helmet off. The Helmet fell to the ground. I gasped. Finally breathless. Her hair was satin black as it cascaded down out of the helmet. Lips ruby red. Black mascara lined her beautiful, bright eyes. They fluttered as she regained consciousness and she looked up at me with a smile. A knowing smile. That of a woman who recognized an Alpha Male. I looked for her name tag and it was only now that I realise she was wearing a Japanese school girl outfit instead of the traditional pilot suit and her blouse buttons were practically screaming as they tried to hold in her enormous 36JJJ tits. "What.... What happened?" she asked, in a sultry, breathless way that immediately gave me a boner. It reminded me of my mom. "I saved you". I said as the sun broke through clouds onto my face, allowing her to see that my acne from poor diet was doing well today compared to yesterday. "Please. I've been saving my virginity for the right man. I want you to take it". I'm a man of honour and duty. I immediately ripped my pants off and within seconds, she was having an orgasm so powerful that it's force actually reconstructed and welded together the Blackhawk. Breathless. She lay twitching as I put my XXXXL tactical gear that I bought from Temu back on. I climbed into the seat of the blackhawk. I knew how to fly it because it's just simple math and I'm a Sempai Chan on War Thunder. I looked at the sunrise. Time to start a new. "Where are we going?" asked Goth Giga Tits Female. "We are going to move forward. Move past this. Focus on what can be, unburdened by what has been". But what about your rifle? Don't you want to collect these guns for at least some spare parts and ammo?". I scoffed, "M'lady".... i started looking desperately for the X button that starts the engines and automates take off.... "With AI, I don't NEED spare parts"."
*Dream music plays again* we cut to an over-weight larper dry humping his waifu pillow.
If you want an AI, buy an AI. But it's just a gun.