Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-4837344-20170916052345/@comment-2.37.215.88-20200830010712

strangely enough she is both things.

and a clear distinction can be made in a paragon with yui

yui is a real ai a program created with a set of parameter limits and objective. she is a top down ai. created  with a limited capability of reaction to situation because its creator can not code every possible response to every possibile situation.

alice is a copy of human mind (fluctlight or soul in  the interpretation of the story) educated and grown up in a digital world. she is essentialy a scan of a newborn mind made to evolve in a digital world. she is a bottom-up ia. she is capable of learning but has also an incredible versatility in comparison to an ia as yui. she is not coded to react in a certain way. limit could be placed to limit her actions but her set of ability to think and reaction are essentially on par with a human mind.

so the answer is alice is a bottom-up ia made from a scan of a human mind. she is not tecnically a pc program but she is not human in the old definition of the term. at the end of alicization she is downloaded in a  robot body and that is the thing that is seen at the end of the book. she is essentially an android