I recommend this novella.

I recommend this novella. I was deeply engrossed in it and didn’t even mind that my airplane was late. 🙂 In the best spirit of speculative fiction, it takes an interesting idea (commercialization of AI) and runs with it. And runs and runs. I couldn’t have predicted where it ended up. It’s not really a twist, but an interesting journey.

http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2010/fiction_the_lifecycle_of_software_objects_by_ted_chiang