It just occurs to me that there's a murky world of political and criminal double-dealing there that would be right up her alley. Plus, Yukli can pass for a robot to go undercover without having the EMP ansoftware override vulnerabilities that might be used against actual machines.

As for an "in", Yuki knows and is trusted by Tandi 3000 who is at the forefront of the right movement, and by Anna and others who are likely pootential victims of any anti-robot legislation.

The current background (as of the most recent UT anyhow) is that, after the "massacre" of many sentient robots during the Parody War 18 months before, the legal status of thinking robots differs from nation to nation and is still undetermined in the US. Can a robot be tried om court or is it destroyed like a malfunctioning device? Is there a right to continued functioning (does a robot AI die if it is rebooted from scratch? Hallie believes so.) Is behavioural reprogramming by legal owners acceptable?

And since robots are now a multi-billion dollar industry from military to sexual applications, there are plenty of people out there willing to get nasty to get what legislation they want passed (on both sides of the argument).