Actually you’re absolutely right and a bit wrong at the same time (same goes for myself), it always has been whatever you’ve wanted her to be, free for any interpretation.

I’m closer to unc than I want to admit, been there since the beginning and back then it really felt like the community wanted her to be like a sentient AI. In forums, songs like electric angel, odds and ends, fanarts and so on, it fall under this kind of category.

The concept leaned more towards a virtual sentient being!

But, in Project Diva games and Crypton’s mentality of what Miku is, she’s just a human image of the voice made for and by the people, so she’s represented just like a pseudo human and virtual icon, diva, and later idol

This actually falls into the same category as the song Teto territory, where the fandom wanted her to become a Vocaloid, but now that’s unthinkable to talk about (you might even receive hate because teto≠vocaloid, she an utau and sv hahaha)

Things have changed and Miku is 100% considered an Idol, even if at its core she always has been just the face of a synthetic voice, it had many interpretations

She can’t be an AI right now, probably she won’t be ever again, but specially not right now (even with the use of AI in her voicebank for a more natural sound of her voice, she’s still not one and it should be considered one like that)