Artificial intelligence that grew out of Discovery's computer and the Sphere data, becoming a recognized member of Starfleet.
Zora, voiced by Annabelle Wallis, is the sentient artificial intelligence of the USS Discovery. She developed after the ship's computer merged with a huge archive of data from an ancient Sphere, which Discovery carried into the 32nd century.
Zora gradually shows emotion and personality, and in the fourth season the crew debates whether an artificial life form can be trusted aboard a starship. She is formally recognized as a sentient being and enlisted in Starfleet as a specialist, while keeping her role as the ship itself. Zora works with the crew through the Dark Matter Anomaly crisis and the search for the Progenitors. The Short Treks episode Calypso shows a far future in which she has waited alone aboard the abandoned ship for nearly a thousand years. The series finale ties into this, as Discovery is sent to those coordinates with Zora aboard.
Zora's journey from computer to crew member echoes earlier artificial characters such as Data and the Doctor. Her link to Calypso connects Discovery's ending to one of the first Short Treks.