The first half of this story really echos a lot of what people say now about robots, and A.I. taking over. There is a twist closer to the end that kind of ruins the first part of the story (at least looking at it from modern eyes.) There are so many things this books remind me of, Earth: Final Conflict, parts of I, Robot (2004), "What are little Girls made of " - Star Trek TOS, and more. I can't say for sure if any of these were influenced by this story, maybe in some small way they were. This is another story I want to put on the re-read list, it's a really good story, that probably should get more attention.