Upgrade Day
ShortStory 2,080 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"Today is upgrade day and Gabriel, a model 2098 post-human intelligence robotic service assistant, wears an appropriately festive hat. The perfect cone of polka-dotted purple paper slopes to one side of his head, his glossy plastic surface giving the weak elastic band no purchase."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.