A review by rachelhelps
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang

4.0

This is a novella that imagines what it would be like if a software company made child-like AIs that required about as much effort as real children. The AIs reside in a popular virtual world and learn from each other and their owners, although after a few years most owners put their AIs in a perpetual sleep state. Some people "rewind" their AI children to an earlier state whenever things go wrong, while others refuse to. Scientists copy AI children and put them in simulations where they can run faster than realtime, but they simply end up witha bunch of feral AIs. The story follows the initial AI children and their owners into "adolescence", and their obsolete hardware doesn't port over to the newest virtual world. The last part of the story delves into how the owners can fund such a port.

The story brings up ethical questions about AIs and also sexual consent which are really interesting. If you read it I'd love to discuss it with you! It was worth tracking down and sending to my kindle!