The android is far more simple to explain than the intelligence.

Its make and model are named as Virtual Artificially Seeded Higher-Technology Intelligence Model 10-WI-AKD7; the make being a "backronym" for VASHTI. The design is based on parts obtained from the outfit Origin Technologies, as the failing company was purchased in a "fire sale" by Moynahan Corporation.  The android was then expanded on much farther, until its form resembled that of a human so closely that it is now impossible to distinguish one just by looking at it or touching it. The craft is an utter stroke of ingenuity.

The operating system - if it can be described so simply - is a marvel in itself. Developed over nearly a decade of experimenting and fine-tuning by scientist and engineer Christian Moynahan, it is a true intelligence, capable of logic and reason, but also of learning and developing on its own, and has already assimilated various emotions and created behaviors unique to itself. The constant redesign of the intelligence continues, both as the scientist refines his approach and the intelligence grows. It interacts with the world around it daily, just as a human does.

The intelligence is housed within the VASHTI android. As required by federal law, it is bound by the Three Laws of Robotics, and by many other laws besides, including the need to self-identify when asked and the regular inspection of the host android to ensure that it is not comprised of any illegal parts, such as any material that would make it dangerous, unstable, or indestructible. The intelligence is tested at least three times a year as well, by a panel of scientists and other experts, to ensure that its learning and self-improvement capacities do not threaten to constitute a singularity. As long as these requirements are met, the intelligence, and others like it, is allowed to operate freely. What troubles and prejudices it encounters are wholly up to the society it lives among.

It lives. VASHTI does give the appearance of living, right down to the unnecessary function of breathing. It lives and moves among the people of New Orleans largely unnoticed, its existence known to only a handful of individuals, and its true design and purpose known only to the intelligence and its creator.

The intelligence has even given itself a name.