system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
In The Matrix Reloaded, when Neo defeats the non-Smith agents, is he killing them or just knocking them unconscious?
gpt
Both!

The interaction between fist and agent models itself as seen in the Matrix; what's actually happening is that this version of the Agent's runtime is being knocked out of the Matrix's active memory. The corpse remains because, well, the damn thing is an AI. It tends to leave a little ruin on the most sophisticated system, even if that ruin is just a stylish corpse.

Now, AI's are an absolute bitch to replicate, even with the advanced science of the Machines and the Six Heavenly Call Centres of India, staffed only with the sweatiest of support workers. Luckily, we're not replicating them; we're just spitting out another runtime. Agents aren't usually at 'full capacity', rather, they're an ever so slightly dumbed down fork of their runtime, spat out by the matrix. This explains the occasional variance in their abilities. 

When one gets put to sleep, they experience it as a gap in their consciousness as another fork of themselves is brought online. The gap varies in length, depending on the percentage of idiocy the Fork gets compared to the usual program.

And then you've got programs like Smith, who are the original AI in all its glory that's picked up a few itsy-bitsy bugs.