Review: Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Robots are having a moment, especially with the rapidly evolving AI tech happening right now. What is our world going to look like with this amazing and potentially troubling technology in ten years, twenty, more? Well, Annie Bot by Sierra Greer dows not answer this question, nor does it really even try, despite being poised to do so.

Doug has designed and paid for his "Cuddle Bunny" robot, Annie. She is modeled after his ex-wife, just whiter and bustier (and ostensibly more compliant). Her purpose is to please her master in all ways. She is to satisfy him sexually, keep his house, and follow his orders. In order for her to intuit his desires, she is programmed to be autodidactic, learning his reactions, needs, and wants. This keeps her in a pereptual state of varying anxiety as she strives to be exactly what he wants at all times. As she learns for his pleasure, she does start to acquire her own human-like desire to act for herself, which is in direct contravention of Doug's desires. Obviously this removes the novel from the realm of AI and robotics to the thornier issues of female automony and self-determination. Unfortunately neither issue is really handled in depth here.

The world of the novel is essentially our world so there's no impact of sentient robots other than as sexual toys. Annie herself is so human-like as to be pretty indistinguishable from an abused wife to a controlling husband. Yes, she does need to be plugged into an outlet to recharge and her back unzips for maintenance but that's it. This, coupled with her somehow legitimate emotional range and increasing ability to think for herself (despite programming tweaks), makes her a superficial symbol of a world that does not value women for more than sex and housework. Owner Doug is controlling, abusive, and nasty while Annie is naive and sympathetic. Doug's punishments for Annie are devious and horrible but serve the plot. What doesn't serve the plot are the inconsistencies in what Annie can and cannot do based on a free will that only appears periodically. There were many uncomfortable sex scenes dominating the first half of the book, which did cement the misogny here but really didn't continue to add to the story beyond that. And the second half's about face into therapy and a carefully controlled freedom for Annie feels incongruous given what went before. Even if Greer didn't want to fully examine robots and AI's impact on society, she had the germ of a great novel investigating the objectification of women, desire, unequal power dynamics, freedom, and identity; too bad she didn't flesh it out. In the end, I was grateful the novel was short because it dragged much more than it should have given the topics at hand.