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Klara is uniquely empathetic and observant for an AF (Artificial Friend), and curious about the world of humans. She is constantly making note of human behavior in an effort to better understand both them and herself; she often tries to imagine herself in situations in which she might feel the intense emotions that she witnesses being felt around her. Because of her nearness to humanity itself, Klara’s character alone asks the question: what does it mean to be human? She is ultimately able to feel almost everything except for anger and a desire for self-preservation. She is programmed to serve Josie, and is faced at a certain point with the possibility of having to become Josie if the child should die. Although she agrees to try to do this for Josie’s sake as well as the Mother’s, she ultimately decides—after Josie survives her illness—that she would not have been able to become Josie because she would never fully be Josie to the people who loved her. This observation argues that a person is not just who they are to themselves, but who others perceive them to be. 

All of Klara’s emotions appear to stem from her relationship with Josie. She is happy if Josie is happy, she is sad if Josie is sick—she feels only a duty to serve the child, and gratitude at being able to do so. Klara is the inverse of contemporary society’s fear of the future of artificial intelligence. Instead of being an evil robot bent on destroying humanity, she is built only to help and enhance human life while still being, in a way, infused with human life itself. Klara’s character suggests that in order for artificial intelligence to truly help humans, it has to have some humanity of its own.

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