Annie Bot

Annie Bot is marketed as another contribution to the long tradition of stories that use artificial intelligence to explore what it means to be human and have free will. However, Greer seems less interested in exploring the implications of artificial intelligence than in the power dynamics of romantic relationships in general.

There is remarkably little world-building surrounding the novel’s artificial intelligence or robotics. Instead, our understanding of the world is intentionally limited to Annie’s perspective. On its own, that limited perspective works fine. The problem is that nearly every detail we learn about Annie serves to emphasize her humanity rather than her artificiality. As a result, the robotics premise begins to feel incidental, giving the impression that the AI angle was awkwardly forced into a basic story about unhealthy modern relationships.

The story did keep me engaged and give me plenty to think about, I was just surprised by how secondary AI premise ended up feeling, given how prominently it’s featured in the book’s description. There is also a heavy emphasis on sex throughout, which is to be expected in a novel about a sex robot, but I couldn’t help feeling conflicted by the way the book seemed to use explicit sexual content to engage the reader while also criticizing the objectification and exploitation behind it.

Book author: Sierra Greer