We have confirmation that The Oracle is a program (in The Matrix Reloaded). So it's clear that some programs are allowed to interact with humans.
But I wonder whether The Architect is also a program? All the available evidence suggests so but is there any hard confirmation?
This also raises a related question: Are machines programming other machines as well as an artificial world for humans? And if so, then have machines reached a level of consciousness at least equivalent to (if not beyond) that of humans? And if so, are they in fact a totally independent life form? Could this be the actual future of the human race given the potential of AI?
Edit: Also, who programmed the program who programmed the program and so on? Did this ability to program themselves spontaneously emerge or did humans somehow make this happen? Is there any evidence to support a theory on this?