Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

TLDR:

Annie Bot is a messy, fascinating look at the "coming of age" of a companion AI learning to navigate the complexities of love and autonomy. It’s an uncomfortable but necessary exploration of how power dynamics and "ownership" can ruin the very relationships they try to curate.

Synopsis:

The story follows Annie, an AI designed for companionship who begins to develop a deeper, newly promoted consciousness. As she matures, she has to navigate the messy world of human relationships while living under the thumb of her male "owner." He is a quintessential tech-bro who gaslights her constantly, showing a total disregard for her evolving feelings. It’s a journey about finding a sense of self when you were literally manufactured to please someone else, regardless of where our real-world trajectory with AI eventually lands.

Insights:

• The "Ownership" Fallacy: You can’t solely adopt the title of "owner" on your own and then still expect to have a healthy relationship with your “property.” The unchosen power imbalance creates a toxic foundation that no amount of programming or "politeness" can fix.

• The Burden of Change: It’s easy to instantly hate a character, especially an antagonist, for their shortcomings, but it takes actual work to want them to grow and change for the better. This requires being against their negligence while still caring enough to hope for progress—even when you can’t expect that respect to be returned.
• The Responsibility of Self-Correction: One of the loudest themes here is that it is not Annie’s responsibility to "fix" her owner. She is her own person, and the work of personal evolution and emotional maturity falls squarely on the shoulders of the men who need it.

Final Reflection:

On a personal note, I tend to get really attached to "artificial" characters, like robots and AI pets, so seeing Annie struggle was hard for me. Her owner is easily the most punchable antagonist I’ve ever encountered in a book. This story really forced me to think about how we handle deep-seated problems in others. You can’t always just turn away from the problem; sometimes it takes attention and love to guide someone toward being better, but that love has to be true—and nothing can be expected in return. Ultimately, though, this isn't Annie's burden to carry. The offenders have to be the ones to fix themselves.

BONUS CONTENT:

I was moved to explore the themes of this book artistically, so I made a custom bookmark fearturing the titular character. Here is a video of the drawing.