Yep I agree Jamesmac
Data i knew of but Ray Ayanami was new to me - I've took a quick look and I get what you mean about the extension of "artificial human" to wider possibilities. Thanks for introducing that to me. :-)
By way of exchange there is a character in a series of sci-fi books written by Sir Terry Pratchett and Steve Brooks - "The Long Earth" i'd like to share.
Lobsang is an artificially intelligent supercomputer who is legally recognised as a human being because he is the reincarnation of a Tibetan motorcycle repair man. :-) This gets around AI not being recognised as being human because of the legal hurdles!
Lobsang is the main helper of the main human character (Joshua Valienté) in the books - hmmm... seems familiar!
Both Lobsag and Joshua are autism coded in my opinion too.
Hehe, Lobsang for a laugh sometimes disguises his avatar as a soft drink vending machine :-)
Here's my version: "anyone fancy a drink?"