Lexa was a cyborg because she was a human being connected to technology – I take some point with Raven’s assertion that ‘her brain was enhanced’ (by the AI), as nothing in the writing indicated this to be a fact.  She had some understanding of the AI/chip as ‘the spirit of the Commanders’ and spoke of past Commanders talking to her in her sleep, but past that, we do not know what effect it had on her.   Titus said that the ‘flame enhances what is already there’ – but what does that mean, really?   The language around the ‘flame/AI’ is vague at best and at no point does the story really explore what it meant for Lexa to be a cyborg, since she never seemed to understand she was one (a far better term than Clarke’s suggestion of Lexa as the AI itself that led to Raven’s unhelpful explanation).  

The story of the AI 2.0 itself became muddled during the course of season 3, with its intended purpose being to understand what it is to be human by being physically connected to a human being.  The idea seemed to be that the AI would, over time (how much time?) evolve an understanding of humanity that would allow it to make human needs and wants its own needs and wants.  It was also implied (in the 3×07 script if not in the filmed episode itself), that 2.0′s code was mean to over-write Alie 1.0′s code, replacing her (since she is the flawed AI).  

So, we can question that once the AI 2.0 was placed in Becca’s neck (note that she and Lexa both had the chip ‘surgically’ implanted, though we later, confusingly, saw the chip work its own way in and out of a human body, by a voice command) the learning process was underway – but what was Becca’s intent returning to Earth with the chip?  Did she plan on finding Alie 1.0 again and replace her?  Did she know how long it would take the 2.0 chip to ‘learn’ how to be human?  How many Commanders succeeded her before we got to Lexa?  It IS implied in the text of the show that Lexa was the turning point for the 2.0 chip, that previous Commanders had been cold, aloof, alone (somewhat non-human, really) and that Lexa changed things by falling in love (first with Costia, then with Clarke) and learning to make others’ wants and needs her own (namely Clarke’s).   

It should have been a fairly straightforward narrative that Lexa’s AI chip would overwrite Alie 1.0 in the finale – but this never happened.  Instead, we were giving a confusing round of language that implied the ‘upload’ of the 2.0 data had no effect on Alie at all.  She was ‘upgraded’ – but nothing seemed to happen as a result.  Instead, a ‘killswitch’ was used to turn her off – though where this killswitch came from (how was Raven able to find it/code it?) is kind of a mystery (there was nothing in Becca’s diary).   So, in a way, the entire point of the 2.0 chip in the story was completely…pointless.  

There is also the issue of ‘reincarnation’ that Jason Rothenberg claimed was an essential part of Lexa’s story: well, there is the subtext about the AI, passing from one person to another, sharing the various consciousnesses of the past Commanders, but reincarnation (as a Buddhist idea) is meant to lead to enlightenment.  Not only was the chip not passed on (in a permanent way to another Nightblood like Luna), so Lexa does not live on in another body, as it were (though, possibly still in the chip itself), but what enlightenment was attained?  It’s hard to say.  We are now aware that humanity has about 6 months to find a place to hide, but past that…?  

So, there was a lot of wasted potential in the AI 2.0 narrative, especially relating to Lexa and what her understanding of it might have been.  If she had lived, might she have told Clarke a secret or two?   If she had been on the one to connect to Alie 1.0, would the ‘upgrade’ have gone differently?  We’ll never know.