Annie Bot
Annie is an AI bot that was created to be Doug’s perfect girlfriend. She serves his every need, physical and emotional, and is designed to adhere to his demands and do everything possible to make him happy. But the more Annie learns, the more human she becomes, and she starts to realize that she might want a life outside of what Doug dictates for her.
I was less interested in the questions of AI and sentience in this novel than I was in Doug’s treatment of Annie and his reasons for having her. He wanted the ability to own, control, shape, punish, and isolate her, and it’s reflective of what some men want in their relationships with real women. It was incredibly disturbing to read, and Annie reacted in much the same way as real women–confusion, trying everything she could to continue pleasing him, deferring to him, and trying to find small ways to assert her own individuality and independence. This was complicated by her being programmed to please him–analogous to the “programming” that real people in abusive relationships experience. This is definitely more than a cautionary tale about AI and there are a lot of angles worth considering.
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Publisher’s Description
Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.
She’s learning, too.
Doug says he loves that Annie’s AI makes her seem more like a real woman, so Annie explores human traits such as curiosity, secrecy, and longing. But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and as Annie’s relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?