*My own **working definition** of virtual beings includes three primary characteristics:*
1. *Virtual beings are multimodal*
1. *Virtual beings are interactive (real-time)*
1. *Virtual beings are VIRTUAL*
*Obviously, there can be a lot of hair-splitting here. *
* *Multimodal means for me existing in more than one mode. For example, a static 3D model in isolation is unimodal. A chatbot in isolation is unimodal. However, when a 3D model is combined with a chatbot then it becomes multimodal.*
* *There is a huge range of interactivity. Not all interactivity is truly real-time. There is also what I call “virtual interactivity”, which is asynchronous interactivity that gives the impression of interactivity. An example of this would be the virtual interactivity of virtual influencers on social media which mimics the asynchronous interactivity of humans on social media.*
* *Virtual means for me virtual EMBODIMENT. In particular, chatbots are not embodied per se. Neither are physical robots, hardware robots, VIRTUAL in any conventional sense.*