What generation is David?

well The David could be a custom model made by Peter Weyland himself but then again Walter did make reference that his model series creeped the humans out

Well it is clear that for Sir Scott it does not matter.

It was already stated on an other thread that in the Japanese novelization by Spaiths and Lindelof of Prometheus that David was only a few years old by the time of the mission (a scene was there with his activation). The movie seemed to imply something on the same lines.

Yet covenant appears and retcons him as being of 80 years of age (as Scott said in an interview). So Weyland never in 80 years changed the appearance of their product. You could also argue that robot self was implemented in new bodies, but that was never touched upon in the movies. So they had 70 years to find out that David was insane and they did not, they put him in the same mission on as Weyland himself and after that found that the clients were creeped out by model, and what they do they release the Walter series which looks like the David series but has a different accent and does not have emotions (which they put back in the Ash models and removed in the Bishop models again).

Indeed we was shown that David was most likely a David 8 Model...

The now taken down Weyland-Industries Viral Site indicated that the first DAVID was created in the year 2025 and so when Peter Weyland was 35 years old (using the sites back ground about Weyland being born in 1990).

The Marketing site then covered Generations of David, right up until the Pre-Orders of David 8

When we saw the Trailers to AC we see that Guy Pearce in the Trailer appeared to be older than 35 and would have passed for a Weyland in his Mid 40's to early 50's and so if we look at a age of 45 for Peter Weyland in the Trailers/Movie, this would indeed mean David was 80  years old.

When discussing this prior to AC release, i did mention it would be likely that the Prototype Models of each New Series could be Weylands Personnel David, it appeared in Prometheus there was a close Bond, David thinks of Weyland as his Father and Weyland even said David was the closest he ever had to a Son.   This does not make sense if David was not every old at the time of Prometheus.

It makes Perfect sense if after each Prototype Weyland Transferred the Memories and Experiences of the previous Prototype Model to the Prototype of the Newer Models.  It makes more sense that Weyland would take the Newest Technological Improvements with him on the Prometheus mission, as that Mission they attempted to have the best of what they had as far as Technology and so why would you take a much older Synthetic.. unless you had some Emotional Attachment and History with it.

The Transfer of in effect Davids Soul, model to model, Makes Perfect Sense, to both Weyland wanting the David who he was more emotionally/historically attached too, yet having the latest Model too.

I thoughts THIS was what was happening, in part because it made sense and in part because it was what i was working with as for a Major Plot of my Prometheus 2 i was working on late 2013/early 2014

Once i saw the movie, then this Theory made more Sense, as the other Option was Weyland took his First David model with him on Prometheus, despite the advancements of later models...   Also when looking at Peter Weyland in AC and how to me he looked between 45-55 this age would place Weyland in the Ball Park of either the David 3/4 Models in the Weyland Marketing Website for Prometheus... where it was described that these Models were the ones that had began Tests on Interaction with Humans.

This thought i had, was prior to seeing AC and and after seeing AC this seemed to not add up with David 3/4 based purely on David choosing his name after the Michaelangelo's statue of David.

So the only CONCLUSION i can have now, is they are Re-writing some of the History set up as far as the Viral Marketing for Prometheus and so now it could appear David was created around the year 2035 instead of 2025

This does not rule out the theory that Davids Soul gets transferred to Newer Models, and i actually feel we will see David Transfer his Soul into a Walter Model he builds from parts on the Covenant.

@ Big Dave, I like to think that there is another possibility...

That the David we see in the opening to AC is the first David, the prototype and Weyland's personal model, and despite being the oldest of the Davids is actually the more advanced, with the mass-produced David 1's using the most basic of Davids functions and with each subsequent generation including more of the prototype Davids features culminating in David 8's adopting the David prototypes ability to emulate and understand human emotions.

Xenotaris makes a good point about David 8 being too perfect. I like to think he was a custom advanced model and future models may have been somewhat simplified for the masses? 

Interestingly, David's lack of updates over the years of isolation seem to have become an evolutionary step of sorts.

To the OP, he is the 8th generation per the video. IDK what or if the WY Report delves into it.

Good topic Gavin. I agree with your point regarding Peter Weyland's David model.

Peter Weyland would not part with the technology of the Alpha Reader/Communicator (Neuro Visor) in which David 8 was able to speak to Peter Weyland in hypersleep. It was one of a kind (Weyland-Yutani Report page 40). Weyland Industries decided not to make more than one and never sold the product.

A decision Peter Weyland said he based on "a man should have the privacy, at least, of his own dreams." Liar.

Peter Weyland wasn't concerned with others' privacy.

He refused to pass on a powerful tool and kept the ability to stay in hypersleep and continue to communicate with David and instruct him to "try harder" and then run a test on Dr. Holloway. 

Below is the David model evolution cited above by BigDave.

This evolution above is, in my opinion, the artistic license of content builders untouched by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Ridley Scott....ask me for specifics on this and I know zilch on them but this hopefully explains inconsistencies in the main character's background. It is just a disappointment to believe the story of the main character has been treated so carelessly.

How many Davids?

My belief (based on Peter Weyland's above described behavior) is that he would ship out the very best that he trusted others with and nothing near what he would keep for himself.

If Peter Weyland were to loosen control and send out the most powerful David models to others, then they might get to the prize first and use it to knock him off his throne. He told David to bring him tea once he sniffed out how right he got it in constructing him when speaking to David at the beginning of Alien: Covenant.

There is no way he would place that David into the hands of someone else.

In his 2023 TED talk, Weyland cited Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra, in his quote below:

"I am a law only for my kind, I am no law for all."

He believed he was like no one else and falsely believed with his works he could rise to immortality. Peter Weyland rose up in front of an Engineer with different beliefs and was converted to the Engineer belief system with one swing of David's severed head into his.