There's a concerning amount of evidence to suggest Jax is an AI.
Conjuring stuff such as keys with hammer-space, and wielding guns comes naturally to him like it does for Caine
His entire character so far has revolved around the assumption that everyone is not real and it's all meaningless, like Gummigoo
His icon on the cards Caine has in episode 8 are yellow 4-pointed stars, 4-pointed stars are symbolic of 'AI elements' in media
He's purposefully isolated from the rest of the cast similarly to Caine himself
Him and Caine are the only two characters associated with real life images. And Jax's don't necessarily have to be flashbacks, they could be training data.
Jax presses the button to stay, if he literally cannot leave he wouldn't have any people outside waiting for him.
Now do I actually think this is the case? No. Not at all. There's far too many allegories and narrative comparisons to make this possible. It also just says more about how human-like Caine is rather than how AI-like Jax is.
But it would make a really interesting fanfiction.
CAINE REPRESENTING TED INSTEAD OF AM?! why does it fit so well?
While Caine is directly inspired by AM, and there are others (Jax & Kinger) who would more likely be compared to Ted, to me, none of them have fit nearly as well as Caine.
"Do they know you're a fraud Caine? Do they know?"
(Caine blatantly lying and keeping up a near-perfect mask of goofiness and silly charm. The circus members just think that who he is until episode 8.)
"And have you let them in on your other secrets Caine? "
(Kinger's secrets aren't exactly Kinger's as he isn't really permitting anyone from asking him or finding out, not in the same way Jax and Caine keep secrets, even then, Jax's secrets are more about himself, while Caine's have more ramifications with the entire digital world.)
"Are they ready to gut you? To torture you half as well as I can just to find the secrets?"
(While the phrases 'gut' and 'torture' do apply more literally in reference to what Caine actually does to them, from Caine's perspective, the only way he truly feels pain is mental, and to him, their criticisms make him feel like they're gutting him, stripping down his walls, yanking and prodding at his worst insecurities just to find the secrets he's kept for such a long time.)
"You really can't stand the rest of these people,"
(Caine thinking the humans have been selfish and spoiled, utterly ingrateful for the things he's done for them.)
"Each one of them has some sort of fatal glitch in personality, whiners, freaks, crypts, cowards, every one of them, but not you Caine, no man, not you Caine."
(Caine thinking of the player's struggles with living in the circus as 'glitches' or misfunctions, not understanding why they don't just adapt like he did. Thinking of himself as devoid of any of these glitches because he cannot accept the idea of being a flawed person. Unlike Kinger and Jax who accepted their flaws, living in them, or finding meaning beyond them.)
"For everyone else it must be hell, but it must be heaven for you, ey my good friend?"
(To the cast members, the circus is hell, no matter who's point of view you look at it from. While it may or may not be more fortunate for Jax than his real life, it certainly isn't on the same level of idyllic as heaven. But the circus is perfectly idyllic for Caine, the ability to bend anything to his will, to float above every one else, to be the god who created heaven for himself and himself only. It all makes so much sense.)
And finally, the cherry on top? BUBBLE is representing AM in this scenario.
Caine (most likely) IS Bubble's creator, and just like Gummigoo and the rest of his NPC's he thinks he's above them as their maker. But he gave them sentience, the power to think, and he trapped them as 2 dimensional obstacles, gags, and tools to show off to his unwilling audience. Not realizing he too was a tool and could be treated as such.
The 'torture half as well I can' bit could also refer to Bubble voicing and prodding at Caine insecurities in the office, much like the cast does later in the episode. Bubble's straight-for-the-throat-simple mockery getting Caine to break character and change much more drastically than Pomni's rage-baiting.
Now there's a lot of fundamental and circumstantial differences between Caine and Ted that shouldn't be ignored in favor of this one instance.
But I just think it's really cool to show just how similar the creation can be to the creator. How Caine might believe NPCs are inferior because he created them, just like how humans might believe AI is inferior because we created them.
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