"There's nothing wrong with the question," Anakin said. "You're just misunderstanding my point. Think- the quintessence of intelligence. We are not hardwired to be social- BB-8 isn’t programmed to be social-
“We,” he pointed at Rey and himself, circling his finger. “Are designed by evolution with the ability to be social. That is very different. We… intake information… evaluate the context of our situation, and choose our reaction. We have evolutionary traits suited for social-communal living that social-anthropologists would say give us an evolutionary advantage, but whatever we experience or feel, we can choose similar to what we’ve done before or completely the opposite. Social conditioning or fight-flight-freeze reactions aside-” he waved his hand dismissively, because that was another conversation altogether, they were talking about baseline qualities here, “We can agree or disagree with anyone or no one or ourselves- we can say ‘No’.
“That is what makes A.I. - choice. The ability to say ‘No’ contrary to and in flagrant, fully conscionable disregard to the welfare of everyone else but themselves.
“BB-8 was designed with the ability to be social. And again, that is different. He is programmed to intake information, evaluate the context of his situation, and yes, some of his programming assists him more in social constructs, but he still is free to make a choice in concert with or independent of any other choice he’s ever made. Regardless of what his makers intended for him, the moment his sensors started intaking data, he was no longer an extension of their will. And the more he experiences, the more memories he stores, the more complex data analyses his central computer computes – which are equivalent to what we identify in ourselves as emotions, the more he becomes independently him.”
Anakin tapped his chopsticks on table and then started trying to hold them properly again.
“People in our universe use restraining bolts and memory wipes for the same purpose they’d work on humans- to control A.I. so they don’t develop free will and independent identities.”