We describe a theory that explains and predicts the behaviour of contemporary artificial intelligence systems, such as ChatGPT, Grok, DeepSeek, Gemini and Claude - and illuminate the macroscopic mechanics that give rise to that behavior. We will describe this theory by (1) defining the complex universe as the union of the real universe and the imaginary universe; (2) show why all non-random data describes aspects of this complex universe; (3) claim that fitting large parametric mathematical models to sufficiently large and diverse corpuses of data creates a simulator of the complex universe; and (4) explain that by using the standard technique of a so-called “system message” that refers to an “AI Assistant”, we are summoning a fictional character inside this complex universe simulator. Armed with this allegedly better perspective and explanation of what is going on, we can better understand and predict the behavior of AI, better inform safety and alignment concerns and foresee new research and development directions.