[fajmccain]

This is the premise of the short story 'The lifecycle of software objects' by Ted Chiang. In that story the employees of the company take it upon themselves to maintain their human-like pets. If the concept of future AI/robot friends like this 'dying' is of interest to you give this story a read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7886338-the-lifecycle-of...

[ahazred8ta]

Ditto the shelter for obsolete dinosaur-toys story by Chwedyk (2001) https://www.reddit.com/r/BKCNoSpace/comments/rkkl80/the_meas...

[kombookcha]

Also check out the lovely novel Klara And The Sun, about a solar powered AI robot friend, gifted to a sickly child.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klara_and_the_Sun

[emmelaich]

and partly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertoys_Last_All_Summer_Long

Made into the film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.I._Artificial_Intelligence

[101008]

I came to comment this. It was a weird story, to be honest. Like I didn't know where it was going, but at the same time I couldn't stop reading it. Highly recommended it.

[riwsky]

Beat me to it!