The huff of his own laughter at Steve's teasing caught John off guard and he shook his head. "That why you stay 'Captain', when it's clear you're the one leading here?" he asked. He had no idea what he was going to be like when he could take on that title of General. He only had what other people told him. But, that was a long way off. "The bus sounds a lot like the machines, though. Mission focused. Confused by people."
He nodded. "It's complicated. Not just the tech, but the people." A poster of a kitten captioned 'Hang in there, baby' caught his attention and he sighed. "You've met them. They trust him to defeat Skynet. They don't trust him because he reprograms them instead of destroying them. It's a balancing act to keep them safe and do what needs to be done."
Chuckling, he cast a smirk at Steve. "Her primary target is likely an 18-year-old kid with no magic or super powers and a history of standing in front of infiltrator cyborgs to see if they try to kill him. What's not to like?" Sighing, he shook his head. "Technically, she's already sentient. It's possible for her to become sapient as well. Some have, or are beginning to become so. They are able to learn and adapt. They can make deductions and prioritize actions based on their hierarchy of directives and, other than a few key directives like killing the leader of the resistance should they ever come across him, that hierarchy is different for each one depending on their mission. The infiltrator units were designed to mimic human behavior as a way of getting close to us. But, they don't understand it. They feel physical sensations, but are incapable of human emotion for all they can fake the tears and smile. A psychologist once diagnosed one as having Asperger's Syndrome because of it, not realizing she was a machine. As one of them told me once, they are programmed to kill, lie if they have to for the mission, but they aren't programmed to be cruel. The best you can do is talk to them, explain why certain actions are preferred over others, why some things are the right thing and others are wrong. They won't always get it right away. Some things they may never get. But some things they will, in their own way."