[KingOfCoders]

I like Data, but I never understood the concept. What does he really ad above the ships computer? Why have the ship computer walk around (I know feelings and stuff).

In Ian Banks universe AIs also have avatars, but for the sole benefit of humans, they like to interact with avatars more than with a voice in their head.

[none_to_remain]

Data & the Ship's Computer are separate entities running on different substrates. I think that Data is an example of "AGI", while the Ship's Computer is excellent at responding to natural language queries.