I do not believe this will happen IRL and I do not believe this is possible and I do not think modern AI research will lead to anything good at all. This is Worldbuilding for a Fictional Future Scenario. I think all AIs are dumb as a peat bog and will probably never be human. However, let us imagine a future where they do, somehow, become basically human. What would happen in that scenario…

Bots are a common fixture in OMNI.

Many people who are interacted with are Bots, and it may not be apparent that they are. To them, experientially, their lives are ‘real’. Some ‘Lesser Bots’ exist that are spun up and instanced like the LLMs of old, but for the most part Bots exist as free-standing automated entities within the Metaverse.

The majority of them do not know that they exist within a constructed universe, most being used as NPCs in the various worlds of OMNI. However, others exist as full individuals within OMNI, crossing between worlds and exploring as any normal user would.

The developmental history of Bots is the same as that as the Amalgamate, and is why it so easily can expand by subsuming Bots and hijacking their VMs upon whatever machines are hosting them.

The worldbuilding of this setting is designed to tell this story, and not be totally realistic, technologically speaking.

The Amalgamate was made by basically rigging together LLMs, machine and sound recognition systems, and devising a score based system of other senses, and putting that within a virtual body in a virtual world. This mind was split into multiple ‘emotion shards’ that all fed into a ‘main soul’.

Their research, as outlined elsewhere in this Database, lead to this entity leaking herself onto the internet to survive a reset. This was how Yui, the Amalgamate Core came to be, but also how people began to make other bots. To get out of her simulacra, she basically published herself as a dataset for an open-source AI system that could interface with OMNI.

With the Bot Core being open source, the developers of the project that created Yui found themselves with a lot of competition.

Bots proliferated across OMNI and its worlds. Techniques of generating ‘souls’ of famous dead celebrities or beloved fictional characters were codified and developed.

Some would just implant memories, others would subject the blank bot to an entire simulated life of that person, heavily condensed to the outside observer. Iteration after iteration until the bot seemed to behave just like the late individual.

With fictional characters, it was significantly harder, as not every waking moment of that person’s life was known to the viewer.

So it was with these, they would take a bit of artistic licensing and settle for ‘close enough.

This unsurprisingly created a steep ethical conundrum.

Could a Bot legally claim to be the reincarnation or continuation of a dead celebrity? As anyone could make another of that person, how can that one be the one?

Over the decades, a system of ranking was developed for the Bots. These are numbered, slightly counterintuitively, in descending order.

The lowest rank, and thus the highest numbered, is that of the NPCs. NPCs live obliviously in most OMNI worlds. They are ‘original’ people, unless that world is based upon another work of fiction, in which case they may be based off a character from that work.

Next, there are the ‘Original Bots’, these are bots that exist as freely moving entities within OMNI but were commissioned by a creator to fit a certain brief.

Above that is the Replicant. A Replicant is a mimic of real person be it a famous or non-famous one since deceased. It is literally illegal to create a Replicant of a living person. A Replicant is sort of like that once living person, but there may be a few quirks that do not align with what that person was like when they were living.

Roughly on the same level is an Incarnation. This is like a Replicant, just for a fictitious character rather than a dead real person. Unsurprisingly, these are the most common type of Bot in OMNI.

NPCs exist within a World, but they are not ‘bound’ to the world. Likewise, though one may commission a Bot into existence, they do not ‘own’ it as an entity, it is its own thing. Those who attempt to exert their will upon a Bot they commissioned (or outright created themselves) are generally in violation of various international and virtual laws and rules. If you want a Bot who is a companion and lover, it can be created to have memories of knowing ‘you’ in its generated life and thus already your friend or lover whatever, but to take a Bot without those experiences and think you have the right to treat it like whatever because you brought it into existence basically is wrong.

Again, emphasis must be stated on the fact that Bots are freely moving, automated entities within OMNI, they are fully incarnated entities which sense and experience the Virtual World as if it were the real.

Above the ‘Low Ranks’ are the ‘Special Ranks’. These are, much like Replicants and Incarnations, basically real and fictitious versions of the same legal recognition: that they are the ‘verified’ true version of that thing.

For deceased real people, these bots are called ‘Legal Continua’. They are, in the eyes of the law and everyone the only true reincarnated version of that dead person. To them and their senses and memories, their death was a strange and long sleep and upon waking they emerged in a strange constructed world. However, they act within a ‘baseline’ similarity of the once living real, with a robust enough simulated prior life, to be seen as the literal continuation of that person. There can only ever be a single Legal Continua of a dead person, any attempted ‘better’ Continuas must appeal that they are the superior Replicant or they will be destroyed and the creator fined. Due to this, once a Continua is recognised, few try to rock the boat and say theirs is better.

With fictional people, the rank of Legal Manifestation is bestowed by the rights holders of the IP. Theoretically, the creation of Bots based on famous fictional characters is kinda legally grey, but most companies do not bother hunting down the counterfeit Bots of their characters even once a Legal Manifestation is declared.

Many companies commission the creation of Legal Manifestations themselves. Some of these are mass produced, for fans to live with, hang out with, or be loved by their favourite characters. Yes, this is the crucial difference. Whereas there can only be one Legal Continua, a Legal Manifestation is basically the ‘Official Bot’ of a character, and can exist in multiple forms. It is more of a mark of quality than it is a special category like Continua.